"  I  sometimes  write  a  letter — just  for  fun." 

Mayor  Gaynor 

"  His  letters  bear  his  mind." 

Shakespeare 


Some  of 

MAYOR  GAYNOR'S 
LETTERS 

AND    SPEECHES 


New  York 

GREAVES   PUBLISHING    COMPANY 
Tribune   Building 


Copyright,  1913,  by 
GREAVES  PUBLISHING  Co. 


Entered  at  Stationers'  Hall 
London,  England 


SRLF 
URL 


Introduction 

1113 

M^FOfl  GAYNOR'S  LETTERS  need  no  intro- 
duction to  the  American  public.  The  purpose  of 
this  book  is  not  to  make  them  better  known,  but  to  collect 
some  of  them  under  one  cover. 

The  letters  here  given  are  not  one-tenth  of  the  letters 
of  Mayor  Gaynor  which  should  be  published.  To  cull 
them  out  and  get  them  all  together  would  be  a  great  task. 
The  number  of  the  Mayor's  letters  is  prodigious.  His 
letters  were  dictated  from  day  to  day.  Most  of  them,  of 
course,  concern  the  government  of  the  city,  but  what  may 
be  called  "occasional  letters"  or  letters  on  general  topics, 
occur  constantly. 

For  directness,  penetration,  and  wisdom,  the  Letters 
of  Mayor  Gaynor  stand  alone.  Those  who  have  only  read 
an  occasional  letter  from  his  pen  published  —  and  often 
"edited"  —  in  some  daily  newspaper,  will  be  surprised  by 
the  literary  merit,  range  of  thought,  philosophy,  common 
sense  and  incisiveness  of  these  productions. 

As  to  their  style  the  Mayor  himself  has  best  described 
it  in  his  reply  to  a  question  on  <:  the  art  of  letter  writing'' 
which  appeared  in  "  The  New  York  Times."  He  said: 

;'  What  is  this  you  want  —  just  a  word  about 
"  the  art  of  letter-writing?  I  fear  you  will  find  no 
"  art  in  my  letters.  I  only  aim  to  express  what  I 
"  have  in  my  mind  briefly  and  in  the  most  express- 
"  ive  words.  The  most  expressive  words  are  short 
"  words.  I  always  know  I  am  going  to  have  a  time 
"  of  it  and  must  be  patient  when  a  man  with  a 
"  vocabulary  comes  to  talk  with  me.  It  is  the  same 
"  when  such  men  and  women  write  letters.  They 
"  cause  much  unnecessary  wear  and  tear  in  this 
"  world. 

"  If  you  want  a  good  vocabulary,  read  the  Bible 
"  and  simple  books.  But  in  the  end  good  sense  is  the 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

"  foundation  of  good  language.  The  trouble  with 
ff  most  writers  and  speakers  is  that  they  are  all  the 
ff  time  '  trying!  Don't  try — just  write  or  say  what 
"  you  mean.  Naturally  you  may  ornament  it  a 
"  little  with  nice  words  and  phrases  here  and  there, 
"  but  do  not  try  to.  If  you  do  you  spoil  it.  Let 
ff  your  mind  be  unambitious  and  content,  and  then 
"  you  will  better  express  yourself.  What  is  the 
"  best  way  to  write  things,  you  ask?  Often  the  best 
"  way  is  not  to  write  them.  But  if  you  do  the 
"  simple  way  is  the  best." 

Mayor  Gaynor  discusses  a  wide  range  of  topics — pass- 
ing, with  nimble  thought,  "  from  grave  to  gay,  from  lively 
to  severe."  There  is  much  similarity  between  the  writings 
of  Mayor  Gaynor  and  those  of  Benjamin  Franklin,  whom 
he  so  much  admires. 

The  Mayor's  letters  are,  on  the  whole,  genial;  or,  even, 
as  he  says  in  one  of  them,  jovial.  Mostly,  he  says  just 
what  he  likes;  indulging  in  a  luxury  few  can  afford  in 
these  diplomatic  days.  Some  of  his  Literary  Letters— 
notably  that  to  Dr.  Morrison  on  the  Birthplace  of  the  Poet 
Burns,  the  one  to  Mr.  R.  A.  C.  Smith  on  Don  Quixote  and 
that  to  Rev.  Robert  W .  McLaughlin  on  Washington  and 
Lincoln,  deserve  a  permanent  place  in  literature;  as,  in- 
deed, do  many  others. 

Mayor  Gay  nor3  s  speeches — a  few  of  which  are  here 
printed — dealing  with  political,  economic  and  social  prob- 
lems, deserve  serious  consideration. 

W.  B.  Northrop. 


Biographical  Sketch 

(From  The  Evening  Sun,  New  York,  June  26,  1911.) 

WILLIAM  J.  GAYNOR  was  born  and  brought  up 
on  a  farm  near  Oriskany,  in  Oneida  County,  New 
York.  He  is  of  mixed  Irish  and  English  ancestry. 
The  neighborhood  in  which  he  lived  was  called 
"  Skeeterboro."  His  was  the  usual  life  of  a  boy  on  a  farm 
in  a  poor  country.  He  worked  in  the  fields  and  woods 
and  did  the  chores.  He  went  to  the  little  district  school 
each  winter  for  a  few  weeks.  He  afterward  went  to  the 
village  school  and  the  seminary  and  afterward  taught 
school,  and  finally  achieved  a  good  education. 

He  settled  in  Brooklyn,  N.  Y.,  in  1875,  at  the  age  of 
about  24.  He  did  newspaper  work.  Then  he  practiced  law. 
His  rise  in  his  profession  was  steady.  He  was  a  student 
and  was  careful  in  his  practice.  He  settled  all  the  cases  he 
could,  but  when  he  had  to  fight  in  court  he  was  a  formidable 
antagonist. 

CLEANS  UP  FLATBUSH 

He  early  began  to  take  an  interest  in  public  affairs, 
but  not  as  a  partisan.  He  at  first  lived  in  the  town  of 
Flatbush,  adjoining  Brooklyn.  Its  population  was  about 
10,000.  Its  government  was  dependent  on  two  political 
bosses  and  was  thoroughly  bad.  There  was  much  waste 
and  peculation.  All  sorts  of  favoritism  existed.  There 
were  forty  saloons,  only  one  with  a  license.  There  was  a 
colony  of  road  houses  frequented  by  drivers  to  Coney 
Island  and  the  beaches.  Gaynor  was  then  a  silent  young 
fellow.  But  he  had  tried  several  law  cases  at  the  town 
hall  with  great  ability.  He  said  one  day  that  the  govern- 
ment of  the  town  was  a  disgrace  and  the  people  should  not 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

suffer  it.  People  thought  of  the  two  opposing  bosses  and 
smiled,  for  whichever  was  in  power  the  result  was  the 
same.  And  many  even  said  that  they  had  an  understand- 
ing and  worked  together.  The  next  thing  was  that  every- 
one received  a  printed  circular  from  Mr.  Gaynor  inviting 
him  to  a  public  meeting  in  the  town  hall  to  select  candi- 
dates for  the  approaching  election.  The  hall  was  packed. 
Both  bosses  were  there.  The  chairman  was  a  tool  of  theirs. 

His  EARLY  POLITICAL  CREED 

A  motion  was  put  naming  candidates.  Young  Gaynor 
quietly  handed  up  a  resolution  as  a  substitute,  naming  a 
new  set  of  men  from  top  to  bottom.  The  chairman  refused 
to  submit  it  to  a  vote.  Mr.  Gaynor  got  up  on  a  bench  in 
full  view,  and  the  whole  town  learned  that  he  was  not  as 
quiet  as  he  looked.  He  reviewed  the  condition  of  things 
in  the  crispest  words.  He  demanded  that  the  chairman 
put  the  substitute  to  a  vote,  and  told  him  that  if  he  did 
not  do  so  it  would  not  be  at  all  difficult  to  put  him  out  of 
the  window  and  put  another  in  his  place.  The  whole  meet- 
ing broke  out  in  cheers.  The  chairman  lost  his  nerve  and 
put  the  substitute.  It  was  overwhelmingly  carried.  Two 
days  later  the  two  opposing  bosses  combined  on  a  ticket, 
but  were  beaten  three  to  one  at  the  polls.  Gaynor  had 
been  asked  to  run  for  the  Legislature  but  refused.  He  said 
he  wanted  no  office.  The  newspaper  accounts  of  that  time 
show  that  in  his  speech  he  declared,  as  he  often  has  since, 
that  "  ours  is  a  Government  of  laws  and  not  of  men."  He 
even  read  that  famous  passage  to  that  effect  from  the 
Massachusetts  Bill  of  Rights. 

As  A  POLICE  OFFICER 

When  the  government  was  organized  the  town  board 
insisted  on  appointing  Mr.  Gaynor  Police  Commissioner, 
and  he  was  prevailed  on  to  serve.  He  went  quietly  and 
systematically  to  work.  And  everything  was  done  in  a 
strictly  lawful  manner.  No  lawless  police  raids  were 
made,  but  in  a  few  months  the  colony  of  evil  places  was 


MAYOR  GAYNOR'S  LETTERS  AND  SPEECHES 

empty  and  every  hotel  and  saloon  had  a  license.  The 
town  was  "  cleaned  up."  In  a  year  Mr.  Gaynor  resigned 
his  office.  His  work  was  done.  He  made  the  police  force 
respect  the  law,  and  not  do  as  they  liked.  He  has  tried  to 
teach  the  same  lesson  to  the  10,000  policemen  of  the  City 
of  New  York.  They  are  not  permitted  to  do  any  unlawful 
violence.  He  has  taught  them  and  the  community  that 
"  the  way  to  enforce  the  law  is  the  way  prescribed  by  the 
law  itself,"  as  he  has  so  often  declared.  When  a  distin- 
guished citizen  once  said  to  him  that  that  way  would  not 
detect  and  punish  crime  he  answered  dryly,  "  Then  don't." 
Soon  afterward  Mr.  Gaynor  moved  into  Brooklyn. 
The  politicians  distrusted  him.  He  did  not  court  them, 
but  went  his  way.  The  ring  quietly  bought  up  a  private 
water  company  which  supplied  a  part  of  the  city.  They 
paid  about  $200,000  for  it.  Soon  after  they  made  a  con- 
tract with  the  Mayor  and  Comptroller  and  Auditor,  sell- 
ing it  to  the  city  for  $1,500,000.  By  this  time  Mr.  Gaynor 
had  accumulated  some  money  in  his  profession  and  could 
spend  some.  He  brought  a  taxpayer's  suit  to  prevent  the 
carrying  out  of  the  contract.  He  gave  all  the  facts,  show- 
ing it  to  be,  as  he  said,  "  a  spoliation  of  the  funds  of  the 
city."  The  court  contest  aroused  the  public  to  the  highest 
interest.  Mr.  Gaynor  won  through  all  the  courts.  It  was 
a  year  of  hard  work,  with  every  powerful  political  and 
financial  interest  against  him.  First  they  laughed  at  his 
suit.  But  he  only  grew  more  silent  and  grim  and  worked 
harder  and  harder.  The  fraud  was  killed,  and  he  paid  all 
the  expense,  $14,000.  He  next  took  proceedings  and  com- 
pelled the  city  officials  to  collect  the  millions  of  arrears  of 
taxes  from  the  elevated  railroads.  The  members  of  the 
ring  had  large  holdings  in  them,  given  for  their  influence, 
and  protected  them.  He  took  similar  proceedings  to  ex- 
pose the  so-called  Columbian  frauds  and  prevented  the 
fraudulent  bills  from  being  paid.  He  did  other  similar 
things.  His  activity  was  marvellous.  The  common  saying 
was  that  he  heard  every  pin  fall  in  the  city  and  that  nothing 
escaped  his  attention. 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 


USES  MAYORALTY  NOMINATION 
A  Mayoralty  election  was  now  coming  on  in  Brook- 
lyn. Eiveryone  turned  toward  Mr.  Gaynor.  Honest  peo- 
ple wanted  him  for  Mayor.  The  politicians  sneered  and 
said,  "  That  is  it;  that  is  what  he  has  been  after  all  along; 
we  will  now  see  him  as  a  self-seeker."  A  great  meeting 
was  held  in  the  Academy  of  Music  which  named  him  for 
Mayor.  But  he  would  not  run.  He  said  no  one  would 
ever  be  able  to  say  that  the  public  services  he  had  rendered 
were  with  a  view  to  get  into  office.  He  was  even  touchy 
about  it.  And  that  characteristic  has  manifested  itself 
ever  since  in  the  many  times  he  has  been  asked  to  be  a 
candidate  for  Governor  and  Mayor.  Another  was  nom- 
inated instead.  Later  he  was  nominated  for  Justice  of 
the  Supreme  Court.  He  wrote  declining.  But  leading 
citizens  induced  him  to  run  to  help  the  city  ticket,  the  city 
being  part  of  the  ten  counties  making  up  the  judicial  dis- 
trict. There  was  a  majority  the  other  way  of  about  30,000 
in  the  district  and  the  ring  majority  in  the  city  was  about 
20,000  by  past  elections.  But  Mr.  Gaynor  was  elected 
by  a  majority  of  over  30,000,  and  the  ring  was  as  badly 
beaten  in  the  city. 

This  campaign  led  to  the  destruction  of  the  celebrated 
boss  of  Coney  Island,  John  Y.  McKane.  He  was  chief 
of  police,  and  held  several  other  offices  in  the  town  of 
Gravesend,  now  a  part  of  the  borough  of  Brooklyn.  Al- 
though there  were  only  10,000  inhabitants  in  the  town  he 
had  a  padded  voting  list  of  several  thousand.  He  had 
been  swinging  this  vote  in  a  mass  from  one  party  to  the 
other  for  several  years.  He  gave  it  to  Cleveland  for 
President  one  year  and  the  next  time  to  Harrison.  He 
also  used  this  vote  in  local  and  county  elections  as  he  saw 
fit.  The  votes  were  cast  by  a  gang  of  followers  whom  he 
used  as  repeaters.  At  this  election  he  concealed  the  poll 
lists  until  Election  Day,  so  that  nobody  could  see  them 
and  cause  them  to  be  revised  or  purged.  Mr.  Gaynor  de- 
clared publicly  that  if  McKane  conducted  a  fraudulent 
election  that  year  he  would  have  him  sent  to  state's  prison. 

10 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

McKaiie  only  laughed  at  this  and  went  right  ahead.  Mr. 
Gaynor  had  watchers  appointed,  and  obtained  an  injunc- 
tion from  the  Supreme  Court  to  protect  them.  On  Elec- 
tion Day  McKane  surrounded  the  polling  place  with  his 
policemen,  and  no  one  was  allowed  to  go  into  the  polling 
place  unless  he  had  a  card  issued  by  McKane.  When  the 
watchers  presented  themselves  with  the  injunction  Mc- 
Kane exclaimed,  "  Injunctions  don't  go  here."  He  set  his 
thugs  on  the  watchers  and  beat  them  unmercifully  so  that 
they  had  to  run  for  their  lives.  The  entire  vote  was  cast 
in  opposition  to  the  Gaynor  ticket.  A  good  many  said 
now  that  Mr.  Gaynor  was  elected  he  probably  would  for- 
get his  threat  to  send  McKane  to  State's  prison.  But 
he  did  not.  He  wrote  to  the  Governor  demanding  that 
the  Attorney  General  intervene  as  the  District  Attorney 
was  on  the  side  of  McKane.  After  some  difficulty  the 
Governor  appointed  two  special  deputy  attorney  generals. 
Mr.  Gaynor  furnished  them  with  all  the  evidence,  and 
directed  and  advised  all  of  the  proceedings.  The  result 
was  that  McKane  and  18  of  his  men  were  indicted  and  all 
of  them  were  convicted  and  sent  to  prison.  McKane  died 
a  few  years  after  his  seven-year  term  expired.  The  work 
done  in  this  matter  was  an  object  lesson  to  the  whole 
country,  and  attracted  attention  from  all  parts.  The 
memory  of  it  still  lives  among  many  men.  And  the  work 
was  done  quietly  and  in  order.  There  was  no  clamor  and 
no  false  statements  were  given  out  by  press  agents.  Mr. 
Gaynor  worked  at  it  quietly  and  unostentatiously  until  the 
whole  thing  was  done.  Many  of  the  younger  generation 
think  that  Mr.  Gaynor's  part  was  to  try  McKane  as  a 
Judge,  but  that  is  not  so.  He  was  the  citizen  who  attacked 
McKane,  gathered  the  evidence  against  him,  and  caused 
him  to  be  prosecuted  and  convicted. 

NOTABLE  CAREER  AS  JUDGE 

The  career  of  Mr.  Gaynor  as  a  judge  is  well  known. 
He  was  an  immense  worker  and  set  a  new  pace.  The 
number  of  cases  he  tried  each  year  was  beyond  anything 

11 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

theretofore  known.  The  legislative  committee  on  the  law's 
delays  reported  all  this  several  years  ago.  His  opinions  on 
the  rights  of  the  individual,  on  immunity  from  unlawful 
arrests  and  police  interference,  and  on  libel,  and  other 
kindred  things  became  read  and  known  all  over  this  coun- 
try, and  some  of  them  are  legal  classics.  It  was  not 
thought  he  would  remain  long  on  the  bench.  But  he 
refused  to  resign  to  run  for  Governor,  for  Mayor  of 
Brooklyn  and  twice  for  Mayor  of  Greater  New  York. 
At  the  end  of  his  term  he  did  not  seek  renomination  or  say 
a  word  on  the  subject.  But  all  of  the  parties  without  an 
exception  renominated  him.  He  served  only  two  years  of 
that  term.  The  last  four  years  as  a  judge  he  served  as  a 
member  of  the  Appellate  Division  of  the  Supreme  Court 
of  the  State. 

ONLY  WINNER  ON  His  TICKET 

But  in  1909  he  was  induced  to  resign  to  run  for  Mayor 
of  New  York  City.  Every  one  on  his  ticket  was  beaten 
except  himself.  He  had  a  majority  of  73,000. 

His  career  as  Mayor  is  known  to  the  whole  country. 
He  made  no  promises  or  alliances  to  get  the  office.  He 
selected  men  to  head  all  the  twenty-eight  departments  of 
the  city  to  suit  himself.  The  knowledge  and  insight  which 
he  manifested  in  the  workings  of  the  city  government  was 
an  object  lesson  to  everyone.  Nothing  escaped  his  atten- 
tion and  he  knew  the  way  to  do  everything.  He  cut  off 
millions  of  expenses.  He  abolished  boards  and  bureaus 
that  every  Mayor  before  him  had  supposed  to  be  legal 
fixtures.  The  story  has  been  so  often  written  and  told 
that  it  need  not  be  repeated.  He  has  made  the  government 
of  the  city  an  object  lesson  and  pattern  for  the  whole 
country.  He  draws  the  eyes  of  Europe  even  upon  the 
city.  They  know  him  and  talk  of  him  over  there  almost  as 
much  as  we  do  here.  But  he  has  kept  right  on.  The 
departments  have  been  raised  to  the  highest  efficiency. 
This  is  particularly  true  of  the  Police  Department,  al- 
though grafters  were  found  in  it  and  it  has  been  bitterly 

12 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

assailed.  The  men  are  kept  within  the  law  and  made  to  do 
their  duty.  The  Mayor  has  caused  all  appointments  and 
promotions  to  he  made  in  numerical  order  from  a  competi- 
tive list.  Xo  money  or  influence  is  permitted  to  interfere 
with  this.  No  one  is  able  to  make  any  charges  of  fraud, 
ring  rule  or  political  favoritism  in  the  government  of  the 
city.  Under  this  man  they  have  simply  vanished.  Of 
course  a  man  like  this  has  enemies,  who  growl  and  abuse 
him.  But  the  Mayor  goes  right  on.  The  people  say,  "  We 
love  him  all  the  more  for  the  enemies  he  has  made."  But 
he  quarrels  with  no  one  and  is  unjust  to  no  one. 

MAYOR  AS  PHILOSOPHER 

The  philosophical  turn  of  the  Mayor's  mind  has  en- 
deared him  to  the  country.  He  displayed  it  throughout 
his  whole  career,  but  it  became  more  apparent  in  his 
wider  field  as  Mayor.  He  is  called  upon  to  make  extem- 
poraneous addresses  all  the  time  and  has  made  more  than 
any  Mayor,  if  riot  more  than  all  the  Mayors  who  preceded 
him,  and  on  all  sorts  of  subjects.  And  he  always  has  some- 
thing thoughtful  and  often  witty  to  say.  The  same  is  true 
of  the  many  letters  he  writes.  He  seems  to  have  no  desire 
to  conceal  his  thoughts  or  opinions,  as  is  the  case  with 
many  politicians.  Soon  after  he  became  Mayor  the  public 
was  attracted  to  one  of  the  first  of  his  long  series  of  public 
letters.  A  minister  of  the  Gospel  wrote  to  him  for  a  license 
to  preach  to  the  Jews  in  the  most  congested  Jewish  quar- 
ter in  order  to  convert  them.  His  answer  is  in  this  volume 
(page  21). 

Perhaps  this  letter  also  displays  the  Mayor's  own 
profound  belief  in  God,  which  seems  to  be  his  whole  creed. 
His  use  of  pure  Anglo-Saxon  in  his  oral  and  written 
speech  is  remarkable. 

ATTEMPT  TO  KILL  HIM 

In  August,  1010,  a  discharged  city  employee  tried  to 
assassinate  Mayor  Gaynor.  He  came  up  behind  the  Mayor 
on  the  deck  of  an  ocean  steamer,  where  the  Mayor  stood 

18 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

talking  with  friends  who  had  come  aboard  to  see  him  off 
to  Europe,  and  placing  a  pistol  close  to  the  back  of  the 
Mayor's  head  fired.  The  powder  marks  will  always 
remain.  The  bullet  entered  back  of  the  right  ear,  and 
changing  its  course  two  or  three  times  passed  through  his 
throat.  It  was  never  extracted.  At  first  it  was  thought 
that  the  Mayor's  voice  was  permanently  gone.  But  it 
came  back  by  degrees,  and  during  the  last  year  he  has  made 
many  public  speeches  and  now  his  voice  is  nearly  normal. 
This  assault  on  the  Mayor  revealed  a  new  phase  in  his 
character,  a  most  unusual  physical  as  well  as  mental  cour- 
age. The  concussion  rendered  him  unconscious  momen- 
tarily, but  he  struggled  to  his  feet,  and  kept  perfectly  cool 
although  bleeding  from  mouth  and  nose.  He  did  not 
manifest  the  slightest  fear  of  death,  although  he  and  every- 
one thought  he  was  dying.  He  never  speaks  of  the  matter. 

WOULDN'T  RUN  FOR  GOVERNOR 

Three  years  ago  the  unanimous  voice  of  the  Democratic 
party  of  the  State  called  on  the  Mayor  to  run  for  Gov- 
ernor. He  carefully  considered  everything,  and  then  sent 
a  letter  to  the  waiting  convention  saying  that  as  a  matter 
of  duty  to  the  people  of  New  York  City  he  could  not  re- 
sign as  Mayor  to  accept  another  office.  Everyone  had  sup- 
posed he  was  going  to  run  for  Governor,  for  his  election 
was  beyond  even  a  shadow  of  a  doubt.  He  has  since  often 
said  the  office  of  Mayor  was  larger  than  that  of  Governor, 
and  second  only  to  the  Presidency.  Considering  the  im- 
mense powers  vested  in  the  Mayor  of  New  York  this  is 
true. 

The  Mayor  has  all  along  taken  a  deep  interest  in 
national  politics,  and  nothing  in  that  field  escapes  him. 
His  speech  on  th^  tariff  when  Cleveland  first  ran  for  Presi- 
dent was  widely  circulated — it  was  one  of  the  best.  He  is 
a  close  student  of  national  questions.  For  years  he  spoke 
of  favoritism  in  freight  rates  as  the  grossest  wrong  of  the 
age.  His  recent  speech  at  Yale  University  (see  p.  243) 
and  other  recent  utterances  have  been  widely  read. 

14 


Mayor  Gaynor's  Letters  and  Speeches 


PART  I— LETTERS 


His  First  Letter  as  Mayor 

January  10, 1910. 

Sir:  Please  let  steps  be  taken  for  the  immediate  re- 
sumption of  the  running  of  the  stages  on  Riverside  Drive, 
from  Seventy-second  street  to  the  viaduct,  unless  there 
be  a  sufficient  reason  to  report  to  the  contrary.  That  fine 
drive  was  made  by  the  City  for  all,  arid  not  for  a  few. 

Charles  B.  Stover,  Esq., 

Commissioner  of  Parks, 

New  York  City. 


An  Act  of  Justice 

January  12,  1910. 

Sir:  Please  take  measures  to  reinstate  Clinton  H. 
Smith  in  his  office  of  secretary,  unless  there  is  something 
that  should  be  reported  to  me  to  the  contrary,  and  his 
case  can,  later  on,  be  calmly  dealt  with.  That  done  in 
heat  or  haste  is  as  a  rule  ill  done.  We  must  not  only  deal 
with  people  with  justice,  but  also  with  the  appearances  of 

15 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

justice,  the  latter  sometimes  being  as  essential  as  the 
former. 

Charles  B.  Stover,  Esq., 

Park  Commissioner,  etc. 

Drivers  Might  Freeze 

January  19, 1910. 

Sir:  As  I  walked  down  Flatbush  avenue,  Brooklyn, 
on  my  way  over  this  morning,  I  noticed  that  all  of  the 
drivers  of  a  long  line  of  snow  wagons  which  were  being 
filled  by  the  shovellers  were  standing  about  doing  nothing 
or  sitting  on  their  wagons.  I  called  one  of  them  to  me 
and  asked  him  if  the  drivers  did  not  help  to  load  the 
wagons.  He  answered:  "  No,  not  when  the  City  removes 
the  snow,  but  when  contractors  remove  it,  then  we  do." 
How  about  this,  please?  Should  they  not  take  a  shovel 
and  help?  They  may  freeze  to  death. 

W.  H.  Edwards,  Esq., 

Commissioner. 

Walking 

January  21,  1910. 

To  the  Mayor  of  Los  Angeles :  This  will  introduce  to 
you  my  long  time  friend,  Edward  Payson  Weston,  who 
intends  to  walk  from  your  city  to  this  city,  and  if  you  give 
him  a  good  send-off  we  will  give  him  a  good  greeting  when 
he  arrives  here.  By  teaching  by  his  example  the  taking  of 
outdoor  physical  exercise  he  is  a  benefactor  to  the  human 
race  and  should  be  treated  as  such. 

Simplified  Spelling 

February  11,  1910. 

Dear  Mr.  Carnegie:  Your  letter  is  one  of  the  many 
coming  to  me  about  the  matter  of  abolishing  the  general 

16 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

personal  tax.  They  are  all  in  favor  of  doing  it.  But 
yours  is  the  only  one  expressed  in  the  new  simplified  spell- 
ing. "  I  feel  compeld  "  to  compliment  you  in  that  respect. 
But  what  about  the  fate  of  Roosevelt  when  he  tried  it, 
or  rather  tried  to  make  other  people  try  it,  yea  or  nay? 
I  note  your  expression  of  earnest  hope  that  I  do  not 
postpone  applying  to  the  Legislature  until  next  year.  Of 
course  I  have  no  wish  to  advocate  anything  contrary  to  the 
intelligent  will  of  the  community.  If  it  calls  for  the  re- 
peal law  now  I  will  have  it  prepared  and  sent  to  Albany. 
Or  may  be  a  law  giving  us  local  option  in  the  matter 
would  be  more  prudent?  I  note  the  newspaper  editorial 
approvals  which  you  quote.  It  is  a  great  thing  to  have 
intelligent,  able  and  fair  newspapers,  which  most  of  ours 
are.  The  less  said  about  the  other  few  the  better. 

Andrew  Carnegie,  Esq. 


Waste  in  Condemning  Lands 

February  IT,  1910. 

Sir :  I  have  concluded  that  the  street  opening  bureau 
needs  to  be  reorganized,  and  also  the  method  of  acquiring 
lands  for  City  use  and  the  making  of  awards  therefor.  The 
said  bureau  is  in  even  worse  condition  than  I  had  sup- 
posed. The  work  there  is  protracted  and  made  expensive 
beyond  endurance.  Commissioners  of  appraisal  and 
award  invariably  take  months  and  years  to  do  what  could 
be  well  done  in  hours,  days  or  weeks.  In  that  way  they 
run  up  expensive  bills  for  their  own  fees  and  expenses 
which  the  landowners  have  to  pay,  and  also  postpone 
necessary  improvements.  I  have  cases  before  me  where 
from  4  to  10  years  were  taken  in  proceedings  to  open  short 
streets,  or  a  few  blocks.  In  addition  to  this,  grossly  ex- 
cessive awards  are  made.  In  the  acquiring  of  land  for 
city  use,  excessive  awards  are  habitual,  and  the  same  un- 
necessary time  is  taken.  The  awards  range  from  2  to  6 

17 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

times  the  fair  value.  I  am  glad  to  inform  you  that,  as 
might  be  expected,  the  Judges  who  appoint  commissioners 
are  anxious  to  put  an  end  to  these  abuses.  It  seems  to 
me  the  way  is  for  the  Corporation  Counsel  to  have  each  set 
of  commissioners  charged  by  the  Judge  appointing  them 
in  respect  of  the  law  governing  them,  and  also  as  to  the 
time  within  which  they  should  complete  their  work,  and  in 
the  case  of  dilatory  commissioners  the  Corporation  Coun- 
sel should  move  the  court  for  their  removal  without  com- 
pensation. It  may  be  necessary  for  you  to  remove  all  of 
the  appraisers  and  employ  new  ones  for  the  future  in  each 
particular  proceeding.  The  collusion  between  permanent 
appraisers  and  unscrupulous  attorneys  for  owners  of  lands 
being  taken  is  easy  and  has  already  been  exposed,  as  you 
know.  The  cost  of  commissioners  in  condemnation  and 
street  opening  proceedings  was  recently  greater  than  that 
of  the  entire  judicial  establishment  within  the  city  limit. 

I  look  to  you  to  make  a  complete  reform  in  these  mat- 
ters. Millions  in  money  will  thereby  be  saved  annually  to 
the  City.  Remember  always  that  yours  is  a  great  ad- 
ministrative department  and  not  one  of  mere  litigation, 
technicalities  and  delays.  I  shall  be  glad  to  help  you  so 
much  as  I  can,  and  I  am  assured  that  the  Judges  will  co- 
operate with  you.  For  instance,  we  are  about  to  acquire  a 
block  of  land  in  Brooklyn  for  a  new  court  house.  It 
depends  on  the  Judge  who  appoints  the  condemnation 
commissioners  whether  the  land  shall  be  taken  at  its  fair 
actual  value,  or  whether  the  commissioners  shall  be  unfit, 
and  also  turned  loose  to  make  excessive  and  fictitious 
awards,  and  to  remain  on  the  job  for  years  when  two  or 
three  months  would  be  ample  time.  If  the  tax  commis- 
sioners do  their  duty  in  valuing  land  for  taxation,  it  can- 
not well  happen  that  a  commission  should  make  an  award 
for  land  which  is  more  than  10  to  15  per  cent,  higher  than 
such  tax  valuation. 

A.  R.  Watson,  Esq., 

Corporation  Counsel. 

IS 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

Slow  Growth 

February  25,  1910. 

My  Dear  Mr.  Scott :  I  thank  you  very  much  for  your 
letter  of  February  17.  I  should  not  have  delayed  so 
long  in  answering.  I  assure  you  that  you  do  not  have  to 
argue  one  moment  with  me  to  get  me  in  sympathy  with 
your  ideas  of  simplified  spelling.  Our  spelling  has  been 
changing  for  centuries  and  will  continue  to  change.  It 
will  not  change  suddenly,  however.  It  seems  to  be  con- 
trary to  the  rules  of  Providence  that  even  good  things 
should  be  done  suddenly.  How  long  He  sat  patiently 
brooding  over  this  earth  before  it  was  fit?  How  slowly 
our  bodies  mature,  and  the  trees,  and  the  grain  of  wheat, 
and  everything  about  us  in  the  material  world.  The  same 
holds  good  in  the  intellectual  world.  All  good  growth  is 
slow  growth,  and  even  the  simplification  of  spelling  must 
have  its  slow  growth. 

Charles  P.  G.  Scott,  Esq., 

Manhattan. 

A  Learned  Ratcatcher 

March  20,  1910. 

Dear  Mr.  Frey :  Your  letter  of  March  15  is  at  hand,  de- 
scribing how  your  calling  of  ratcatcher  is  being  constantly 
interrupted  by  your  being  summoned  to  serve  as  a  juror. 

Sooner  than  have  the  city  overrun  with  rats  and  every- 
thing eaten  up  by  them  I  would  have  you  relieved  of  jury 
duty.  Do  you  not  think  we  had  better  have  a  bill  intro- 
duced in  the  Legislature  to  exempt  ratcatchers  from  jury 
service  ? 

The  difficulty  is,  however,  that  so  many  exemptions 
have  already  been  passed  by  the  Legislature  that  there 
seems  to  be  only  the  ratcatchers  and  a  few  other  people 
left  to  serve  on  juries.  That  might  possibly  impede  the 
progress  of  your  bill  if  sent  to  Albany. 

I  will  have  to  carefully  consider  the  matter,  and  some 
day  when  you  are  down  this  way  come  in  and  we  will  talk 

19 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

it  over,  and  also  about  rats.  I  see  that  you  are  a  classical 
scholar,  judging  by  the  motto  at  the  head  of  your  letter. 
My  experience  is  that  learned  men  are  to  be  found  every- 
where. As  we  read  in  Don  Quixote :  *  The  moun- 
tains breed  learned  men  and  philosophers  are  found  in  the 
huts  of  shepherds." 

Charles  M.  Frey,  Esq. 

Good  Friday 

March  25,  1910. 

Dear  Dr.  Morrison:  Your  rules  of  living,  which  you 
have  been  so  good  as  to  send  me,  are  so  sensible  and  so  easy 
to  carry  out,  that  I  have  a  strong  notion  to  publish  them. 
I  am  going  to  read  them  occasionally  and  see  if  1  can  even 
measurably  follow  them,  for,  as  you  know,  I  have  never 
been  very  careful  of  myself.  I  suppose  that  before  long 
I  shall  begin  to  feel  the  effects  of  it,  and  tire  out  from  work. 

This  has  always  been  the  one  day  in  the  year  which 
fills  me  with  awe.  It  is  the  day  of  the  world's  greatest 
tragedy.  I  see  Him  all  da)^  long  hanging  from  the  Cross 
on  the  hill  called  Golgotha.  How  bad  they  treated  him, 
and  how  the  whole  world  deplores  it.  I  have  never  been 
able  to  understand  those  who  have  no  feeling  about  Good 
Friday. 

Rev.  William  Morrison, 

Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 

Patrolman's  Kind  Act 

April  5, 1910. 

[NOTE  :  The  Mayor  received  a  letter  from  Mr.  George  B. 
Dickerson,  of  Westfield,  N.  J.,  telling  how  his  two  little  boys  had 
been  to  the  Hippodrome  in  New  York  with  their  teacher  and 
others,  and  got  separated  from  them  and  lost,  and  how  a  police- 
man found  them  in  the  street  and  directed  them  how  to  get  home, 
and  gave  them  a  dollar  to  pay  their  fare,  and  how  they  arrived 
home  safely.  On  inquiry  the  Mayor  ascertained  that  the  police- 
man was  Patrolman  Thomas  Sheahan,  of  the  29th  Precinct,  and 
he  thereupon  mailed  to  him  the  letter  of  Mr.  Dickerson  and  asked 

20 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

the  policeman  to  explain  the  occurrence.  The  Mayor  received  a 
reply  from  Patrolman  Thomas  Sheahan,  telling  in  a  modest  way 
how  he  found  the  boys  and  directed  them  how  to  get  home  and 
gave  them  the  dollar.  The  Mayor  answered  Patrolman  Sheahan 
by  the  following  letter:] 

Dear  Mr.  Sheahan :  I  am  very  glad  indeed  to  receive 
your  letter  of  April  4,  explaining,  in  answer  to  my  re- 
quest, how  you  sent  the  two  little  boys  home.  It  was  very 
kind  of  you  indeed,  and  I  am  certain  they  will  send  back 
the  dollar  which  you  gave  them.  I  have  long  known  from 
personal  observation  that  the  patrolmen  do  many  kind 
things,  and  I  am  in  a  position  now  to  hear  of  many  of  them 
every  day.  I  shall  always  be  glad  to  hear  from  you,  and 
also  to  do  anything  for  you  which  I  can  legally  and 
properly  do. 

Converting  the  Jews 

April  21,  1910. 

Reverend  and  Dear  Sir :  It  seems  to  me  that  this  work 
of  proselyting  from  other  religions  and  sects  is  very  often 
carried  too  far.  Do  you  not  think  the  Jews  have  a  good 
religion  ?  Have  not  the  Christians  appropriated  the  entire 
Jewish  sacred  scriptures?  Was  not  the  New  Testament 
also  written  entirely  by  Jews?  Was  not  Jesus  also  born 
of  the  Jewish  race,  if  I  may  speak  of  it  with  due  rever- 
ence? Did  not  we  Christians  get  much  or  the  most  of 
what  we  have  from  the  Jews  ?  Why  should  any  one  work 
so  hard  to  proselytize  the  Jew  ?  His  pure  belief  in  the  one 
true  living  God  comes  down  to  us  even  from  the  twilight 
of  fable,  and  is  the  one  great  unbroken  lineage  and  tradi- 
tion of  the  world.  I  do  not  think  I  should  give  you  a 
license  to  preach  for  the  conversion  of  the  Jews  in  the 
streets  of  the  thickly  settled  Jewish  neighborhoods  which 
you  designate.  Would  you  not  annoy  them  and  do  more 
harm  than  good?  How  many  Jews  have  you  converted 
so  far? 

Rev.  Thomas  M.  Chalmers, 

Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 

21 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

Stops  All  Arrests  Without  Warrant  for  Accidents 

May  6,  1910. 

Sir:  Complaint  has  been  made  to  me  that  on  April 
21st  Joseph  F.  Mullen,  a  locomotive  engineer  of  the  New 
York  Central  and  Hudson  River  Railroad  Company,  was 
arrested  without  a  warrant  and  locked  up  by  two  policemen 
over  night;  that  he  was  taken  to  the  police  court  next 
morning  and  held  in  $1,000  bail  for  examination  on  the 
charge  of  assault;  that  he  offered  Mr.  H.  B.  Dwyer  as 
his  bondsman;  that  the  Magistrate  rejected  Mr.  Dwyer 
for  the  reason  that  he  had  once  practiced  law  (which  was 
no  reason  at  all  in  criminal  practice ) ,  and  sent  the  prisoner 
back  to  jail;  that  thereupon  a  Justice  of  the  Supreme 
Court  accepted  Mr.  Dwyer  as  bondsman  and  discharged 
the  prisoner  on  bail;  that  on  the  examination  day  the 
officers  who  made  the  arrest  could  furnish  no  evidence 
against  the  prisoner;  that  an  adjournment  was  had,  and 
on  the  adjourned  day  they  could  furnish  no  evidence;  that 
subsequently  the  Coroner  called  up  the  37th  Street  Police 
Station  house  and  had  the  prisoner  arrested  again  without 
a  warrant;  and  that  he  was  afterwards  discharged  again 
for  lack  of  any  evidence. 

All  this  was  done  because  a  brakeman  on  the  cars  at- 
tached to  the  said  Mullen's  engine  was  hurt  while  he  was 
standing  on  the  running  board  of  the  tender  of  the  engine 
in  the  yard  of  the  New  York  Central  and  Hudson  River 
Railroad  Company.  There  was  nothing  to  show  that  the 
engineer  assaulted  him.  It  appears  to  have  been  an  acci- 
dent. We  have  all  observed  that  policemen  very  often 
make  similar  arrests  of  motormen  and  others  simply  be- 
cause an  accident  happened.  I  write  this  to  you  not  merely 
to  redress  the  wrong  which  was  committed  to  this  man, 
but  also  to  have  you  do  away  with  such  occurrences  in  the 
future.  The  members  of  the  force  seem  to  be  under  the 
erroneous  notion  that  it  is  their  duty  to  make  arrests  in 
all  such  cases.  They  should  not  do  so  unless  there  be  some 
evidence  after  careful  examination  that  a  felon}7'  was  com- 

22 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

mitted,  and  even  then  they  should  await  the  issuing  of  a 
warrant  unless  the  case  be  reasonably  clear,  and  the  de- 
fendant may  run  away.  The  wray  is  to  first  make  an  exam- 
ination and  see  whether  the  person  has  committed  a  felony 
and  whether  anybody  can  testify  against  him.  To  arrest 
an  engineer  or  motorman  for  assault  or  manslaughter 
simply  because  an  accident  happened,  and  without  any 
evidence  against  him,  is  an  oppression  forbidden  by  law. 

William  F.  Baker,  Esq., 

Police  Commissioner. 

Big  and  Little  Policemen 

May  9,  1910. 

Sir:  This  will  introduce  to  you  Mr.  Joseph  Hocker, 
who  wants  to  be  a  policeman.  He  says  he  has  under- 
gone the  physical  examination,  and  passed,  but  fears  your 
mental  test.  He  is  certainly  a  physical  giant,  6  feet  5 
inches  tall,  and  I  trust  he  is  an  intellectual  giant  also,  be- 
cause we  are  in  need  of  the  latter  kind  on  the  police  force. 
He  is  too  big  for  the  detective  force ;  he  could  not  go  any- 
where without  being  seen.  Is  there  no  way  to  get  a  few 
little  men,  even  hunchbacks  and  "  singed  cats,"  on  the 
police  force,  so  that  we  can  make  detectives  of  them?  We 
do  not  need  giants  for  detectives.  We  are  more  in  need  of 
little  fellows  who  can  go  through  keyholes  and  knotholes, 
and  if  they  have  eyes  in  the  back  of  their  heads  also  all  the 
better. 

To:  the  Chairman, 

Civil  Service  Commission. 


A  Government  of  Laws,  Not  of  Men 
(From  The  Outlook,  June  18,  1910.) 

The  people  of  the  City  of  New  York  do  well  to  wel- 
come Mr.  Roosevelt  home.  He  is  of  them — bone  of  their 
bone,  flesh  of  their  flesh — and  they  have  "  a  soft  side  "  for 

23 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

him.  Through  a  long  ancestry  he  is  native  and  to  the 
manner  born  here.  And  the  people  of  the  whole  country 
will  join  in  the  welcome.  They  have  witnessed  with 
pleasure  the  honor  done  to  Mr.  Roosevelt  in  Europe. 
Twice  within  two  generations  have  they  now  seen  the  like 
in  the  case  of  two  of  their  former  Presidents.  General 
Grant  had  not  only  been  President  twice,  like  Mr.  Roose- 
velt, but  had  one  of  the  great  military  careers  of  the  world 
back  of  him.  No  doubt  some  of  the  extraordinary  curi- 
osity displayed  in  Europe  to  see  him  and  do  him  honor 
arose  from  this  latter  fact.  But  the  chief  reason  was  the 
same  as  in  the  case  of  Mr.  Roosevelt,  namely,  that,  having 
been  twice  President  of  the  United  States,  and  become 
again  a  private  citizen,  docile  to  just  authority,  he  per- 
sonified in  the  European  mind  the  idea  of  a  government  of 
laws  as  distinguished  from  a  government  of  men.  It  is 
that  idea,  first  vitalized  on  this  continent,  and  afterwards 
followed  as  an  example  in  Europe,  by  slow  degrees  and  by 
one  nation  after  another,  which  shall  always  make  one  who 
has  been  in  chief  rulership  over  this  country  an  object  of 
profdund  interest  and  reverence  to  the  rest  of  the  world. 
In  one  form  and  another  we  expressed  it  in  the  beginning 
in  its  threefold  division  of  power  in  all  of  our  fundamental 
instruments  of  government,  the  loftiness  of  the  conception 
being  sometimes  expressed  in  equally  lofty  and  felicitous 
language,  as,  for  instance,  in  the  Massachusetts  Bill  of 
Rights: 

"  In  the  government  of  this  commonwealth,  the 
Legislative  department  shall  never  exercise  the 
executive  and  judicial  powers,  or  either  of  them; 
the  Executive  shall  never  exercise  the  legislative 
and  judicial  powers,  or  either  of  them;  the  Judicial 
shall  never  exercise  the  legislative  and  executive 
powers,  or  either  of  them;  to  the  end  it  may  be  a 
government  of  laws  and  not  of  men." 

Great  problems  now  confront  us  for  solution,  the  ac- 
cumulation of  more  than  two  generations  of  men  more 

24 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

bent  on  their  individual  success,  if  not  greed,  than  on  the 
public  weal.  No  few,  but  all  of  us,  are  to  blame  for  it, 
either  by  actual  commission  or  by  indifference  and  neglect. 
With  that  era  now  drawing  toward  its  close,  let  us  get  our 
standpoint  anew  in  this  great  conception  of  government,  to 
the  end  that  we  may  lose  all  fear,  as  we  most  certainly 
shall,  of  a  resort  to  force  to  right  whatever  has  grown  up 
among  us  that  suiteth  not  a  commonwealth,  and  has  in  it 
the  canker  of  death  to  government  of  equal  opportunity  to 
all  and  favoritism  or  privilege  to  none. 


Exhibition  of  Prize  Fight  Pictures  In  Theatres 

July  7,  1910. 

Dear  Sir:  I  thank  you  for  your  favor  of  July  0. 
If  it  lay  in  my  power  to  say  whether  the  pictures  should 
be  exhibited  it  would  not  take  me  long  to  decide  it.  I  do 
not  see  how  it  can  do  any  one  any  good  to  look  at  them. 
But  will  you  be  so  good  as  to  remember  that  ours  is  a  gov- 
ernment of  laws  and  riot  of  men.  Will  you  please  get 
that  well  into  your  head.  I  am  not  able  to  do  as  I  like 
as  Mayor.  I  must  take  the  law  just  as  it  is,  and  you  may 
be  absolutely  certain  that  I  shall  not  take  the  law  into  my 
own  hands.  You  say  you  are  glad  to  see  that  the  mayors 
of  many  cities  have  "  ordered  "  that  these  pictures  shall 
not  be  exhibited.  Indeed?  Who  set  them  up  as  autocrats ? 
If  there  be  some  valid  law  giving  any  mayor  such  power 
then  he  can  exercise  it ;  otherwise  not.  The  growing  exer- 
cise of  arbitrary  power  in  this  country  by  those  put  in 
office  would  be  far  more  dangerous  and  is  far  more  to  be 
dreaded  than  certain  other  vices  that  we  all  wish  to  mini- 
mize or  be  rid  of.  People  little  know  what  they  are  doing 
when  they  try  to  encourage  officials  to  resort  to  arbitrary 
power. 

Rev.  O.  R.  Miller, 

Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 

25 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

In  the  Presence  of  Death 

St.  James,  L.  I., 

Sept.  3,  1910. 

My  dear  Sister:  Your  letter  encouraged  me  very 
much.  I  was  so  glad  to  get  it,  for  I  was  feeling  depressed, 
although  coming  from  the  hospital  home  had  braced  me  up 
for  the  time  being.  I  felt  shaky  and  doubtful  of  myself, 
until  Tuesday,  the  first  day  I  walked  out,  but  now  my 
strength  is  returning  fast.  The  barking  neuralgia  in  all 
the  side  of  my  head  and  my  ear  has  subsided.  The  wound 
healed  without  trouble.  You  remember  how  quickly  the 
two  bad  cuts  I  got  when  a  boy  healed,  one  from  an  axe 
and  the  other  from  a  scythe.  The  doctors  looked  at  the 
scars  in  the  hospital. 

I  still  find  it  difficult  to  talk,  but  my  voice  comes  back 
a  little  every  day.  But  I  shall  not  inflict  my  ills  and  aches 
on  you.  I  am  sorry  for  the  worry  I  have  caused  you  all. 
You  remember  my  dog  "  Spot,"  when  we  were  children. 
He  got  hurt  once,  and  crawled  under  a  pile  of  logs  and 
lay  there  for  more  than  a  week  before  he  came  out.  Well, 
when  any  trouble  happens  to  me,  I  feel  just  like  poor 
"  Spot  "  —I  would  like  to  crawl  under  the  log  pile  and 
stay  there. 

I  have  not  read  any  newspaper  since  I  was  hurt,  nor 
have  I  been  told  how  the  thing  happened,  except  that 
Commissioner  Thompson  told  me  on  the  deck  that  I  had 
been  shot  by  a  former  employee  of  the  Dock  Department. 
I  do  not  remember  the  name  he  gave.  It  is  my  intention 
never  to  read  a  line  of  what  has  been  published  in  the 
newspapers  about  the  matter  or  me  since  I  was  hurt.  It 
might  warp  my  mind  about  myself.  What  I  am  I  am, 
with  all  my  shortcomings,  and  I  am  content  with  that. 

My  own  knowledge  of  the  occurrence  is  of  course  very 
limited  and  may  be  inaccurate.  I  think  I  shall  tell  it  to 
you  now,  so  that  there  may  be  some  family  record  of  it, 
and  in  a  year  or  two  I  wish  you  to  turn  this  letter  over 
to  Rufus  to  keep.  I  was  taking  him  with  me  for  com- 

26 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

pany.  As  you  know,  lie  and  I  have  travelled  much  to- 
gether. He  was  on  the  other  side  of  the  ship  and  did  not 
see  me  shot. 

I  was  standing  on  the  deck  talking  with  Commis- 
sioners Thompson,  Lederle,  Edwards,  Corporation  Coun- 
sel Watson,  my  secretary,  Mr.  Robert  Adamson,  and 
several  friends  who  had  come  aboard  to  see  me  off.  Mr. 
Montt,  President  of  Chili,  and  Mrs.  Montt  had  just 
passed  by,  and  I  had  spoken  a  few  words  with  them.  Mr. 
Adamson  pointed  out  that  the  ship  was  dressed  with  flags 
for  me,  but  I  said  I  did  not  think  it  could  be  for  me.  My 
next  consciousness  was  of  a  terrible  metallic  roar  in  my 
head.  It  filled  my  head,  which  seemed  as  though  it  would 
burst  open.  It  swelled  to  the  highest  pitch,  and  then  fell, 
and  then  rose  again,  and  so  alternated  until  it  subsided 
into  a  continuous  buzz.  It  was  sickening,  but  my  stomach 
did  not  give  way.  I  was  meanwhile  entirely  sightless. 

I  do  not  think  I  fell,  for  when  I  became  conscious  I 
was  on  my  feet.  I  suppose  they  saved  me  from  falling, 
and  they  were  supporting  me.  My  sight  gradually  re- 
turned, so  that  after  a  while  I  could  see  the  deck  and  the 
outlines  of  the  crowd  around  me.  I  became  conscious 
that  I  was  choking.  Blood  was  coming  from  my  mouth 
and  nose  and  I  tried  all  I  could  to  swallow  it  so  those 
around  me  would  not  see  it.  But  I  found  I  could  not 
swallow  and  then  knew  my  throat  was  hurt.  It  seemed 
as  though  it  were  dislocated.  I  struggled  to  breathe 
through  my  mouth,  but  could  not,  and  thought  I  was  dying 
of  strangulation.  I  kept  thinking  all  the  time  the  best 
thing  to  do. 

I  was  not  a  bit  afraid  to  die  if  that  was  God's  will  of 
me.  I  said  to  myself  just  as  well  now  as  a  few  years  from 
now.  No  one  who  contemplates  the  immensity  of 
Almighty  God,  and  of  His  universe  and  His  works,  and 
realizes  what  an  atom  he  is  in  it  all,  can  fear  to  die  in  this 
flesh,  yea,  even  though  it  were  true  that  he  is  to  be  dis- 
solved forever  into  the  infinity  of  matter  and  mind  from 
which  he  came. 

27 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

In  some  way  I  happened  to  close  my  mouth  tight  and 
found  I  breathed  perfectly  through  my  nose.  I  then  be- 
lieved I  could  keep  from  smothering.  But  I  kept  choking 
and  my  mouth  kept  opening  to  cast  out  the  blood.  But 
much  of  it  went  down  into  my  stomach.  That  night  in 
the  hospital  I  had  live  hard  chills  in  succession,  and  got 
deathly  sick  and  vomited  up  this  blood  all  over  the  bed. 
The  poor  sister  who  was  watching  me  called  the  doctors, 
but  they  said  it  was  a  good  thing.  I  felt  much  better  after 
that,  but  grew  very  weak.  The  trouble  was  to  get  nour- 
ishment as  I  could  not  swallow. 

But  I  shall  not  speak  of  the  hospital,  but  only  of  my 
recollection  (or  impressions)  of  things  on  the  ship.  They 
wanted  me  to  lie  down  on  the  deck,  but  I  said  no,  I  would 
walk  to  my  stateroom.  I  could  now  see  faces,  and  I 
wanted  to  get  away  from  the  crowd.  I  could  not  bear  to 
have  them  looking  at  me  in  the  plight  I  was  in,  especially 
the  crowd  of  newspaper  men,  and  especially  those  with 
cameras.  Two  of  them  rushed  up  from  the  line  where 
they  all  stood  and  put  their  cameras  right  in  my  face  and 
snapped  them.  I  finally  put  my  hand  up  and  I  think  I 
said  "  don't."  I  hope  these  pictures  were  not  published. 
The  other  newspaper  men  acted  decently,  as  they 
always  do. 

We  were  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  ship,  and  I  was 
supported  through  the  gangway  down  a  few  steps,  and 
then  up  the  same  number,  and  my  stateroom  was  there. 
As  we  were  crossing  I  said  to  Commissioner  Thompson 
on  my  right  hand  to  send  for  two  of  the  best  surgeons  of 
the  city,  and  be  sure  and  tell  them  not  to  discourage  me. 
I  had  difficulty  to  make  him  understand  me,  but  he  finally 
did.  Finding  that  my  wound  was  not  immediately  mor- 
tal, I  had  determined  to  make  a  fight  for  it,  and  did  not 
want  any  one  to  come  near  me  who  would  discourage  me. 
Nothing  annoys  me  more  than  to  have  persons  come  about 
and  express  doubts  when  I  have  set  my  mind  upon  doing 
a  thing. 

They  lifted  me  into  bed,  but  had  to  prop  me  up  on 

28 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

account  of  the  choking.  I  told  the  poor  captain  who  bent 
over  me  that  I  was  sorry  for  the  trouble  and  delay  I  was 
causing.  The  ship's  doctor  and  the  ambulance  doctor  who 
soon  arrived  washed  my  face  and  beard  and  bandaged  my 
wound.  They  carried  me  in  a  litter  and  put  me  in  the 
ambulance.  As  it  started  I  was  filled  with  joy  to  see 
my  dear  Rufe  spring  up  on  the  rear  seat.  I  knew  then 
that  I  was  not  to  be  alone.  How  relative  happiness  is  in 
this  world.  He  had  been  encouraging  me  by  words  all 
along  and  kept  on  doing  so,  but  broke  down  completely 
in  the  hospital  when  mamma  arrived,  as  I  afterwards 
learned. 

The  excitement  being  over,  I  began  to  grow  weak, 
and  was  quite  weak  when  I  was  wheeled  into  the  operating 
room.  I  forgot  to  tell  you  that  as  I  stood  or  was  sup- 
ported on  the  deck  I  heard  some  one  crying  out,  "  Kill 
him,"  and  others  saying,  "  No,  do  not  kill  him."  They  had 
seized  the  assassin.  I  heard  no  struggle,  nor  did  I  hear 
any  shots  fired,  but  I  concluded  that  I  had  been  shot  in 
the  head  by  an  assassin.  I  did  not  hear  or  feel  the  shot 
that  hit  me.  There  was  an  interval  at  the  first  when  I 
seem  to  have  been  unconscious. 

Though  the  thing  had  not  entered  my  head  that  morn- 
ing, I  was  not  surprised  when  I  realized  that  I  was  shot.  I 
had  had  a  feeling  for  some  weeks  that  I  might  be  assaulted 
on  account  of  the  anonymous  threats  I  was  getting  by 
mail.  I  had  not  received  so  many  since  I  was  opposing 
the  ring  corruptions  and  the  McKane  conditions  in  Brook- 
lyn and  Gravesend  when  I  was  a  young  man.  I  had 
ceased  walking  over  the  Brooklyn  Bridge. 

The  matter  of  the  pictures  of  the  Reno  prize-fight  had 
come  up.  I  had  no  way  as  Mayor  to  stop  the  theatres 
from  showing  them.  By  the  city  charter  their  licenses 
were  revokable  by  the  judges  of  the  Supreme  Court,  not 
by  the  Mayor,  and  the  district  attorney  and  corporation 
counsel  decided  that  there  was  no  law  forbidding  such  pic- 
tures. They  had  been  shown  for  years  without  objection. 
But  the  Hearst  newspapers  kept  on  denouncing  me  for 

29 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

not  stopping  them.  I  suppose  you  know  the  way  they 
had  belied  me  ever  since  I  became  Mayor.  Finally,  one 
day  they  printed  in  large  type  that  an  officer  of  the  Chris- 
tian Endeavor  Society  named  Lowande  had  called  on 
me  at  the  Mayor's  office  and  asked  me  on  behalf  of  that 
society  to  stop  the  pictures,  and  that  I  told  him  he  "  was 
a  fool  and  was  sent  by  fools." 

I  had  never  said  such  a  thing,  as  you  may  well  know. 
It  was  made  up.  I  learned  that  Lowande  was  a  process 
server  for  lawyers.  The  officers  of  the  Christian  Endeavor 
Society  put  forth  a  statement  of  their  own  motion  that 
it  was  untrue  that  they  had  sent  Lowande  or  any  one 
else  to  me,  and  that  he  did  not  represent  them.  But  it 
made  no  difference.  These  newspapers  went  on  repeating 
the  falsehood,  and  even  tried  to  get  up  a  public  meeting 
to  denounce  me. 

Meanwhile,  people  of  wicked  or  disordered  minds,  of 
whom  there  are  a  large  number  in  New  York  city,  would 
cut  these  articles  out  and  send  them  to  me  with  abuse 
and  threats  written  on  the  margin,  or  else  with  anonymous 
letters  threatening  me.  Some  of  them  said  I  would  be 
killed.  Probably  they  cared  nothing  about  the  pictures, 
but  the  particular  disorder  of  their  minds  was  inflamed 
by  reading  how  bad  a  man  I  was.  Finally  they  printed 
that  terrible  cartoon  of  me  entitled  "  The  Barker."  I  was 
dressed  up  as  a  ruffian  and  standing  outside  of  a  prize- 
fight ring  twirling  a  cane  and  barking  for  people  to  go 
in  and  see  the  sport.  Two  men  slugging  each  other,  one 
of  them  down  and  bleeding,  were  exposed  in  the  ring. 

Think  of  one  who  has  been  more  of  a  library  student 
than  anything  else  all  his  life,  and  who  never  even  saw  a 
boxing  match,  being  pictured  like  that.  But  the  ignorant 
and  disordered  minds  believed  it,  and  I  suppose  many 
others  who  read  no  other  newspaper  did,  and  were  nat- 
urally inflamed  against  such  a  ruffian  being  Mayor.  That 
was  the  object  these  newspapers  had  in  view,  although 
they  printed  all  the  pictures  of  the  fight  in  the  most  re- 
volting form,  as  they  had  been  doing  for  years  with  all 

30 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

such  fights.  Even  some  sensational  ministers  wrote  to  me 
as  though  they  believed  it.  It  was  during  this  time  that 
it  first  entered  my  head  that  I  might  be  in  danger,  espe- 
cially in  walking  over  the  Bridge,  although  earlier  in  the 
year  I  had  received  a  few  similar  threats  when  these  same 
newspapers  published  that  we  were  discharging  small  em- 
ployees but  taking  on  expensive  ones. 

Such  journalism  is,  of  course,  in  absolute  defiance  of 
the  criminal  law,  and  it  did  not  enter  my  mind  to  publicly 
call  on  the  grand  juries  and  the  district  attorney  to  pro- 
tect me  from  it,  but  I  was  weak  and  feared  people  would 
say  I  was  thin  skinned.  But  the  time  is  at  hand  when 
these  journalistic  scoundrels  have  got  to  stop  or  get  out, 
and  I  am  ready  now  to  do  my  share  to  that  end.  They 
are  absolutely  without  souls.  If  decent  people  would  re- 
fuse to  look  at  such  newspapers  the  thing  would  right 
itself  at  once.  The  journalism  of  New  York  city  has 
been  dragged  to  the  lowest  depth  of  degradation.  The 
grossest  railleries  and  libels,  instead  of  honest  statements 
and  fair  discussion,  have  gone  on  unchecked.  One  cannot 
help  sympathizing  with  the  decent  newspapers. 

But  I  will  weary  you  with  all  this.  Tom  saw  me  at 
the  hospital  twice,  and  I  must  write  to  him.  He  started 
immediately  on  hearing  that  I  was  hurt.  What  a  good 
heart  he  always  has.  Give  my  love  to  all.  I  long  to  see 
you,  and  to  go  out  to  the  old  farm,  and  walk  the  old  roads. 
I  am  certain  it  would  do  me  good,  but  I  fear  I  cannot  go 
this  year.  I  wish  I  could  go  back  to  work.  It  would 
take  my  mind  out  of  my  throat. 

Miss  Mary  E.  Gay  nor. 

To  Men  In  State's  Prison  Who  Wrote  to  Him  After 
He  Was  Shot  on  August  9,  1910 

St.  James,  L.  I., 

Sept.  15, 1910. 

Dear  Mr.  Hoyt  (No.  7494,  Clinton  Prison)  :  I  thank 
you  exceedingly  for  your  kind  letter  and  am  glad  to 

31 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

receive  the  good  will  which  you  send  me  of  yourself  and  all 
your  companions  in  the  prison.  I  am  well  aware  that 
many  of  you  are  not  really  bad  men,  but  unfortunate  men, 
and  that  God  so  sees  you.  There  are  many  of  us  who 
would  be  the  same  as  you  are  if  we  had  had  the  same  trouble 
and  obstacles  in  our  lives.  So  do  not  be  discouraged.  I 
shall  not  speak  of  rny  trouble  in  view  of  the  greater  trouble 
of  all  of  you.  Let  us  all  be  patient  and  content. 

Fred  M.  Hoyt, 

Dannemora,  N.  Y. 


Declines  the  Governorship 

Deepwells,  St.  James,  L.  I., 

September  25,  1910. 

Dear  Mr.  Creelman:  Your  note,  with  Mr.  Watter- 
son's,  is  at  hand.  Mr.  Dix  and  Mr.  Mack  have  been  here 
and  I  have  told  them  finally  and  positively  that  I  am  not  a 
candidate  for  Governor,  and  cannot  be  made  a  candidate. 
I  do  not  intend  to  abandon  the  City. 

They  say  that  it  seems  certain  that  the  convention  will 
nominate  me,  even  though  I  am  not  a  candidate.  That 
does  not  seem  probable,  and  I  hope  it  does  not  occur. 

Although  my  mind  is  made  up,  I  do  not  perceive  any 
moral  question  in  the  case.  I  am  under  no  obligation 
whatever  to  remain  as  Mayor.  I  certainly  had  no  such 
compact  with  those  who  opposed  me  and  voted  against 
me;  it  takes  two  sides  to  make  a  compact;  nor  had  I  any 
with  those  who  nominated  and  elected  me;  and  if  I  had, 
they  would  have  a  right  to  release  me. 

As  for  myself  or  my  political  future,  I  shall  not  con- 
sider that  at  all.  Mr.  Watterson  is  in  error  in  supposing 
that  I  have  the  Presidency  in  my  mind.  Never!  And  it 
is  too  late  for  me  to  begin  shaping  my  course  for  any  ambi- 
tious purpose. 

And  when  a  man  has  gone  down  into  the  Valley  of  the 
Shadow,  and  looked  the  spectre  Death  in  the  face,  and  said 

32 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

to  it,  "  I  am  ready,"  nothing  in  this  world  looks  very  large 
to  him,  as  I  can  assure  you. 

You  will  have  a  hard  time  reading  this  letter,  as  my 
shoulder  and  collarbone  are  still  disabled,  owing  to  the 
injured  neck  muscles  which  support  them. 

James  Creelman,  Esq. 


Declines  the  Governorship 

St.  James,  September  26, 1910. 

Dear  Mr.  Creelman :  I  am  this  day  writing  a  letter  to 
Chairman  Dix,  stating  that  I  am  not  a  candidate  for 
nomination  for  Governor,  and  refuse  to  become  such.  I 
do  this  to  remove  all  doubt  on  the  subject  which  may  have 
arisen  by  reason  of  irresponsible  statements  which  I  am 
informed  are  being  circulated.  No  utterance  of  mine  has 
put  the  matter  in  doubt.  Some  have  said  to  me  that  the 
convention  may  nominate  me  although  I  am  not  a  candi- 
date. It  seems  to  me  that  it  might  appear  vain  or  egotis- 
tical for  me  to  assume  in  my  letter  to  Mr.  Dix  that  that 
extraordinary  thing  might  happen.  I  therefore  write  this 
supplemental  letter  to  you  to  take  to  Rochester  and  show 
there  so  as  to  prevent  my  nomination  if  it  should  appear  to 
be  imminent.  Make  it  plain  that  if  nominated  I  would 
decline  to  accept.  I  could  not  abandon  to  their  fate  the 
splendid  men  whom  I  have  appointed  to  office,  and  who  are 
working  so  hard  for  good  government,  nor  could  I  abandon 
the  people  of  the  City  of  New  York  after  so  short  a  service. 
You  may  make  this  letter  public  in  advance  of  going  to 
Rochester  if  in  your  judgment  you  think  the  situation 
calls  for  it.  But  do  not  do  so  unless  it  be  plainly  necessary. 
Every  honest  man  will  understand  me. 

James  Creelman,  Esq. 


33 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

Declines  the  Governorship 

St.  James,  Sept.  26,  1910. 

Dear  Sir:  I  have  further  considered  the  matter  as 
you  requested  when  you  called  on  me  here  with  Mr.  Mack 
last  Wednesday,  but  can  only  reiterate  to  you  that  I  am 
not  a  candidate  for  nomination  for  Governor.  This  must 
have  been  well  known  all  along,  for  I  have  written  it  to 
many  people  during  the  last  six  months.  I  am  not  in- 
fluenced in  my  course  by  assertions  made  here  and  there 
that  I  made  an  agreement  or  compact  during  the  Mayor- 
alty campaign  to  serve  out  the  four  years  if  elected.  These 
false  assertions  are  made  by  persons  who  opposed  me  and 
voted  against  me,  and  would  do  so  again.  I  made  no  such 
agreement.  I  certainly  did  not  make  it  with  those  who 
opposed  me  and  voted  against  me.  I  could  have  had  no 
compact  with  them.  It  takes  two  sides  to  make  a  compact. 
Nor  did  I  make  it  with  those  who  nominated  and  sup- 
ported me.  They  did  not  ask  for  it.  I  did  say  of  my 
own  motion  and  at  the  request  of  no  one  that  I  purposed 
to  devote  the  next  four  years  to  the  service  of  the  City. 
But  this  only  started  a  hue  and  cry  against  me  that  I 
should  make  a  pledge  or  compact  to  that  effect,  which  I 
refused  to  do.  And  if  I  had  made  a  pledge,  that  could 
not  prevent  the  voters  from  electing  me  to  some  other 
office. 

I  am  well  aware,  as  has  been  pointed  out  to  me,  that 
there  are  some  large  things  which  a  Governor  could  readily 
do  for  the  City  of  New  York,  by  oversight  and  legitimate 
interference,  which  the  Mayor  of  that  city  cannot  do  with- 
out much  time  and  difficulty,  if  at  all.  Among  them  I  may 
mention  the  planning  and  construction  of  a  comprehensive 
system  of  subways,  with  a  single  fare  over  the  whole 
system,  which,  in  the  discordancy  or  dualty  of  govern- 
ment, or  both,  now  existing  in  that  city,  is  a  difficult  and 
protracted  matter.  But  nevertheless  my  wish  to  remain 
as  Mayor  is  such  that  I  do  not  become  a  candidate  for 
nomination  for  Governor.  May  I  add  that  as  matter  of 

34 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

fact  the  office  of  Mayor  of  the  City  of  New  York,  con- 
sidering the  power  and  the  constant  occasion  for  the  exer- 
cise of  the  highest  functions  of  free  government  lodged  in 
it,  is  second  to  no  office  in  this  country  save  one. 

Many  tell  me  and  write  me  that  in  taking  this  course 
I  give  up  my  future.  But  I  shall  not  take  myself  or  my 
future  into  consideration.  None  of  us  has  a  future,  but 
only  the  present.  And  if  I  thought  I  had  a  future,  I 
should  be  content  to  entrust  it  to  the  people  of  the  City  of 
New  York. 

I  trust  that  the  convention  will  nominate  some  one  who 
is  not  a  mere  dealer  in  the  political  commonplaces  and 
jingles  of  the  last  25  or  50  years,  but  who  has  kept  pace 
and  grown  with  the  times,  and  whose  absorbing  purpose 
will  be  to  make  the  government  of  the  State,  in  all  its 
branches,  general  and  local,  intelligent,  honest  and  decent, 
and  to  lift  it  up  and  make  it  an  object  lesson  to  the  whole 
nation.  If  to  do  this  he  has  to  be  more  or  less  meddlesome, 
we  will  all  forgive  such  meddlesomeness,  if  kept  fairly 
within  the  law. 

John  A.  Dix,  Esq., 

Chairman,  etc. 

A  Morning  Prayer 

November  3,  1910. 

Dear  Sir:  It  might  be  a  good  thing  for  you  to  stop 
putting  out  false  statements,  even  though  you  cannot  get 
your  campaign  speakers  to  do  the  like.  I  never  favored 
the  nomination  of  Judge  Keogh  for  Governor,  nor  was  he 
a  candidate  for  Governor,  so  far  as  I  know.  I  never  knew 
a  dividend  to  be  got  out  of  false  statements  yet.  I  sup- 
pose, very  naturally,  that  the  other  statements  of  fact  in 
your  published  statement  are  equally  false.  Suppose  you 
pray  every  morning  for  awhile  for  God  to  direct  you  to 
tell  the  truth,  and  see  what  fruits  it  will  bear. 

Ezra  P.  Prentice,  Esq.,   Chairman, 

Republican  State  Committee. 
35 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

Cured 

November  5,  1910. 

Sir :  I  am  glad  to  perceive  from  your  letter  of  Novem- 
ber 4,  just  received,  that  I  have  already  so  far  cured  you 
of  your  propensity  to  make  false  statements  that  you  drop 
your  forged  quotation  from  my  letter  to  Mr.  Ridder,  and 
use  the  correct  quotation.  While  the  lamp  holds  out  to 
burn  the  vilest  sinner  may  return. 

E.  P.  Prentice,  Esq., 

Chairman. 


Socialism  and  the  Red  Flag 

(Extract  from  Message  to  the  Board  of  Aldermen,  February  21, 

1911.) 

I  have  particularly  made  the  police  authorities  under- 
stand that  those  who  entertain  views  of  government,  or  of 
economic  or  social  order,  different  from  ours,  are  not  to  be 
interfered  with,  or  denied  the  right  of  freedom  of  speech 
and  of  assembly  on  that  account.  A  propaganda  by  intel- 
lectual persuasion  and  peaceable  means  for  changes  in 
form  of  government  or  in  the  economic  or  social  order  is 
lawful  and  not  to  be  meddled  with,  much  less  oppressed, 
by  the  police.  The  Socialists  do  not  believe  in  individual- 
ism, but  in  collectivism.  In  place  of  having  the  present 
condition  of  individual  ownership  of  property,  they  would 
mass  all  land  and  chief  products  and  the  principal  means, 
tools  and  machinery  of  production  under  the  control  and 
operation  of  the  State,  in  order,  as  they  claim,  to  bring 
about  distributive  justice,  namely,  a  just  division  of  the 
total  product  of  industry  among  all  those  who  contribute  to 
produce  it  by  their  physical  or  mental  work,  after  first  pro- 
viding for  the  non-productive  aged  or  infirm.  That  it 
clearly  appears  to  the  rest  of  us  that  this  scheme  would  by 
doing  away  with  incentives  to  individual  exertion  greatly 
reduce  production,  and  thereby  increase  poverty  and  dis- 

36 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

tress,  is  no  reason  for  denying  to  those  who  advocate  it 
rights  secured  to  every  one  by  our  system  of  government. 
And  that  their  flag  is  red  instead  of  blue  or  yellow  or 
green  does  not  annoy  or  alarm  intelligent  people.  They 
chose  the  color  red  for  their  emblem,  not  to  signify  that 
they  favor  violence  or  the  shedding  of  blood,  as  the  unin- 
telligent suppose  and  as  actions  of  those  in  official  author- 
ity often  lead  people  to  believe,  but  for  the  purpose  of 
typifying  the  common  brotherhood  of  all  men  of  all  nations 
through  the  same  red  blood  which  flows  through  the  veins 
of  all,  and  to  the  end  that  all  war  and  violence  shall  cease. 
Let  the  fundamental  rights  of  all  on  which  free  govern- 
ment rests  be  denied  to  no  one.  Those  who  want  to  work 
changes  peaceably  through  the  ballot  box  have  the  right  to 
try  to  do  so.  They  may  let  light  in  on  us  or  we  may  let 
light  in  on  them.  As  John  Stuart  Mill  says,  that  which 
seems  the  height  of  absurdity  to  one  generation  often 
becomes  the  height  of  wisdom  to  the  next. 


Argue  Like  Franklin 

March  8,  1911. 

Dear  Sir:  Your  letter  challenging  me  to  a  debate 
with  you  on  Socialism  is  at  hand.  The  mere  fact  that  you 
make  the  challenge  is  probably  proof  positive  that  you  are 
not  fit  for  such  a  debate.  People  who  want  to  force  things 
down  the  mental  throats  of  others  do  their  own  cause  more 
harm  than  good.  Did  you  ever  read  that  part  of  Benj  amin 
Franklin's  autobiography  in  which  he  says  that  experience 
had  taught  him  that  the  way  to  convince  another  is  to 
state  your  case  moderately  and  accurately,  and  then 
scratch  your  head,  or  shake  it  a  little,  and  say  that  that  is 
the  way  it  seems  to  you,  but  that  of  course  you  may  be 
mistaken  about  it;  which  causes  your  listener  to  receive 
what  you  say,  and  as  like  as  not,  turn  about  and  try  to  con- 
vince you  of  it,  since  you  are  in  doubt ;  but  if  you  go  at  him 
with  a  tone  of  positiveness  and  arrogance  you  only  make  an 

37 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

opponent  of  him.  I  write  this  to  you  in  the  hope  that  it 
may  make  you  stop  long  enough  to  think  that  possibly  you 
are  not  so  infallible  as  you  think  you  are.  You  compli- 
ment me  because  I  know  the  meaning  of  the  red  flag  of 
the  Socialists,  and  stated  it  in  my  message  to  the  Board  of 
Aldermen.  It  is  just  possible  that  I  have  done  more  to 
make  the  people  of  New  York  understand  the  meaning  of 
your  flag  and  of  Socialism  than  all  that  you  have  ever  said 
with  stridulent  voice.  If  you  wish  to  be  a  teacher,  just 
read  the  passage  I  have  mentioned  from  Franklin,  and 
cool  off  a  whole  lot. 

T.  N.  Fall,  Esq., 

Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 

How  To  Be  Happy 

March  9, 1911. 

My  Dear  Little  Friend :  I  should  be  most  glad  to  go 
and  see  you  play,  but  you  know  I  have  so  many  things  to 
do  that  I  cannot  go  everywhere.  I  am  glad  that  you  are 
happy  as  you  say.  Everybody  ought  to  be  happy.  It 
does  no  good  to  be  any  other  way.  When  anything  dis- 
couraging or  annoying  happens  just  say  to  yourself: 
'  Well,  it  is  all  right.  The  next  time  something  good  will 
happen."  And  then  you  will  feel  bully. 

Miss  Juliet  Shelby, 

Manhattan. 

A  Book  Review 

Mar.  14,  1911. 

Dear  Mr.  Aldcroft:  I  thank  you  for  sending  me  the 
two  volumes  of  Stewart  Chamberlain  on  "  The  Founda- 
tions of  the  Nineteenth  Century."  It  is  a  most  remark- 
able production  and  will  be  read  by  every  one  who  tries 
to  keep  up  with  and  enlarge  his  mind  by  what  I  may  with 
some  degree  of  accuracy  call  the  philosophy  of  history.  I 

38 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

was  about  starting  for  Albany  and  took  the  first  volume 
with  me.  I  read  it  on  the  train  and  also  spent  most  of  the 
night  over  it.  Some  parts  of  it  fascinated  me,  especially 
the  splendid  fifth  chapter  on  "  The  entrance  of  the  Jews 
into  the  history  of  the  West."  The  author  gives  Greece, 
Rome  and  Judea,  in  that  order,  as  the  nations  from  which 
the  basis  of  our  civilization  was  derived.  It  seems  to  me 
that  he  should  have  reversed  the  order  of  their  enumera- 
tion, and  said  Judea,  Rome  and  Greece.  Outside  of  art 
and  poetry,  the  influence  of  Greece  has  not  been  great  on 
the  civilization  of  the  world.  In  jurisprudence  and  gov- 
ernment, in  all  that  makes  up  a  cohesive  structure  of 
society,  her  influence  has  been  scarcely  felt  at  all,  I  had 
almost  said  not  at  all,  while  the  modern  Western  world 
derives  the  very  warp  and  woof  of  its  laws  and  systems 
of  government  from  Rome.  But  when  we  turn  to  the 
Jews  we  cannot  fail  to  perceive  that  our  foundations  not 
only  in  laws,  manners  and  usages,  but  also  in  religion  are 
set  deep  in  their  legislation  and  literature.  This  is  par- 
ticularly true  of  the  English-speaking  peoples.  The  Jews 
have  brought  down  to  us  from  that  borderline  where  fable 
scarcely  ceases  and  history  hardly  begins  our  knowledge 
of  the  one  true  and  ever-living  God,  which  is  the  sum 
and  substance  of  our  religion.  There  are  no  mysteries 
in  the  Jewish  religion.  Everything  is  fact.  The  Lord 
God  was  the  cornerstone  fact,  and  an  ever-recurring  his- 
torical fact.  "  I  am  the  Lord  thy  God,  who  brought  thee 
out  of  the  land  of  Egypt,  and  out  of  the  house  of  bond- 
age," is  only  one  of  the  thousand  passages  which  attest 
this.  Hence  we  'find  that  the  Jews  were  never  irrevocably 
wedded  to  religious  forms  and  ceremonies.  They  have 
constantly  changed  them  throughout  all  their  history, 
from  age  to  age,  and  according  to  their  environment  in 
their  dispersion  throughout  the  world.  But  to  their  one 
great  religious  belief  or  fact  they  have  remained  true. 

Too  much  cannot  be  said  of  the  splendid  preface  of 
Lord  Redesdale.  It  never  flags,  and  his  English  is  so 
luminous  that  all  the  time  it  conveys  even  the  shades  of 

39 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

his  true  meaning.  As  I  read  along  in  the  book  itself,  I 
could  not  help  wishing  that  he  had  been  the  translator 
also.  But  that  would  have  been  a  very  different  matter, 
for  even  the  best  translator,  unless  he  depart  into  too  free 
a  rendering,  cannot  do  much  better  than  give  a  result  re- 
sembling the  reverse  side  of  a  tapestry  as  compared  with 
the  original. 

It  is  a  striking  thing  that  although  an  Englishman 
born  and  bred  the  author  wrote  in  German,  and  that  the 
English  edition  is  by  a  translator  other  than  himself.  The 
only  similar  case  I  have  in  mind  is  that  of  Gibbon  who 
wrote  much  of  the  draft  of  his  colossal  work  in  French. 
He  somewhere  says  that  he  wrote  in  French  because  he 
had  grown  so  accustomed  to  that  language  that  he 
dreamed  in  it,  and  no  doubt  that  was  the  case  of  Chamber- 
lain with  German.  But  his  mind  also  seems  to  be  dis- 
tinctly German,  so  saturated  is  he  with  German  literature 
and  science;  whereas  the  English  mind  of  Gibbon  stands 
out  plain  in  every  ornate  sentence  and  stately  passage. 
Have  you  observed  the  brilliant  footnote  at  page  145? 

Richard  B.  Aldcroft,  Jr.,  Esq., 

New  York  City. 

Are  You  Certain  It  Is  Your  Beard? 

April  12,  1911. 

Reverend  and  Dear  Sir:  Your  letter  informing  me 
that  as  you  walk  about  the  city  visiting  the  homes  of  your 
parishioners  people  apply  opprobrious  names  to  you,  and 
throw  empty  cans  and  rubbish  at  you,  and  otherwise 
assault  you,  on  account  of  your  beard,  is  at  hand.  You 
ask  me,  "  Is  it  a  crime  in  the  City  of  New  York  to  wear  a 
beard"?  No,  it  is  not.  I  wear  one  myself  and  nobody 
ever  takes  any  notice  of  it.  How  is  it  they  take  notice  of 
your  beard?  Have  you  trimmed  it  in  some  peculiar  way, 
contrary  to  the  Scriptures?  For  you  know  the  Scriptures 
say,  "  Ye  shall  not  round  the  corners  of  your  heads,  neither 
shalt  thou  mar  the  corners  of  thy  beard." 

40 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

Yes,  if  they  assault  you,  and  throw  cans  at  you,  you 
have  a  right  to  defend  yourself  to  the  last  extremity ;  but 
if  you  find  it  necessary  I  will  have  a  detective  go  around 
with  you  for  a  few  days  until  we  arrest  some  of  those  who 
are  wronging  you.  Are  you  certain  that  it  is  your  beard 
which  is  the  cause  of  the  trouble  ? 

Rev.  Basil  M.  Kerbawy, 

Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 


Voluntary  Music  at  Playgrounds 

May  10, 1911. 

Dear  Mr.  Sullivan :  I  have  your  letter  expressing  the 
hope  that  I  will  again  take  up  and  consider  the  question  of 
an  appropriation  to  pay  for  music  in  the  playgrounds. 
You  are  right  in  conjecturing  that  I  am  a  believer  in  the 
playgrounds.  I  would  have  as  many  of  them  as  possible. 
I  like  to  see  the  children  play  in  the  streets,  even.  They 
must  play  somewhere  and  we  must  bear  with  them.  I 
fear  you  do  not  understand  why  I  deprecate  the  idea  of 
the  City  furnishing  music  to  every  little  playground  and 
recreation  place  in  the  city.  It  is  my  belief  that  the  people 
who  go  to  these  places  for  recreation  will  improvise  bands 
of  their  own  if  they  are  encouraged  to  do  so,  and  even  with- 
out any  encouragement.  All  over  the  country  there  is  an 
improvised  band  in  every  little  locality  that  you  come  to, 
even  into  the  edge  of  the  Adirondacks.  I  was  up  in  the 
Catskills  and  along  the  Hudson  River  yesterday  and 
found  a  bandstand  in  nearly  every  little  settlement  and 
village  where  volunteer  bands  play.  Do  you  know  of  any 
reason  why  the  plain  people  of  this  city  cannot  organize 
bands  in  the  same  way  if  we  give  them  a  chance?  In  the 
large  recreation  centers  the  City  may  furnish  music,  but 
in  the  small  places  it  seems  to  me  that  the  citizens  should 
improvise  their  own  bands.  I  suppose  some  people  will 
laugh  at  me  for  saying  this,  but  I  think  our  people  can  do 
it  just  as  well  as  people  all  over  the  State  and  the  United 

41 


MAYOR    GAYNQR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

States  are  doing  it.  Of  course  they  will  never  do  it  if  we 
extend  our  paternalism  to  furnishing  little  bands  here  and 
there  all  over  the  city.  I  think  the  people  can  do  it  here 
better  than  in  other  localities,  because  among  the  foreign- 
ers here  we  have  people  of  musical  and  artistic  talent  in 
greater  proportion  than  in  other  localities  where  they  have 
good  volunteer  bands.  I  hope  you  fully  understand  me, 
and  that  you  will  correct  me  if  I  am  wrong. 

James  E.  Sullivan,  Esq., 

Manhattan. 

Hollering 

May  25, 1911. 

Dear  Mr.  Loder :  Your  letter  is  at  hand,  and  I  thank 
you  for  your  kind  wishes.  You  ask  me  to  stop  the  news- 
boys from  "  hollering  "  their  papers.  I  have  a  lot  of  hard 
things  to  do,  but  I  fear  the  job  of  stopping  the  newsboys 
from  hollering  would  be  the  hardest  of  all.  Will  you  help 
me?  Or  suppose  I  delegate  the  whole  matter  to  you? 
Will  you  undertake  th<°  job?  I  won't  delegate  you  just 
yet  awhile,  however,  for  I  am  not  certain  that  I  want  to 
stop  the  little  fellows  from  hollering.  They  do  not  disturb 
me  any.  A  whole  lot  of  people  have  been  hollering  at  me 
of  late,  but  they  do  not  disturb  me,  and  much  less  does  the 
hollering  of  the  little  newsboys  disturb  me.  The  fact  is  I 
could  sit  down  and  think  and  work  in  a  boiler  shop.  That 
is  one  of  the  qualifications  which  should  be  prescribed  for 
a  Mayor  of  the  City  of  New  York. 

Cornelius  S.  Loder,  Esq., 

New  York  City. 

The  Pleasures  and  Profits  of  Walking 

(The  following  is  an  article  published  in  The  Independent, 
June  1,  1911.  It  is  in  conversational  form,  and  was  dictated.) 

I  fear  you  are  taking  me  too  seriously  as  a  walker. 
It  is  true  that  I  have  been  walking  for  a  good  many  years, 

42 


MAYOR    GAYNQR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

but  I  do  not  pretend  to  be  anything  more  than  an  ordinary 
trudger.  During  the  sixteen  years  that  I  was  a  Justice  of 
the  Supreme  Court  I  made  it  a  rule  to  walk  from  five  to 
seven  miles  a  day.  I  did  this  to  keep  myself  in  health. 
I  sat  in  bad  air  in  the  courtroom.  In  the  morning  I  walked 
a  few  miles,  and  after  leaving  court  in  the  evening  I 
walked  a  few  miles  more. 

When  I  became  Mayor  I  simply  continued  my  walk- 
ing. I  walk  from  my  house  to  the  City  Hall  in  the  morn- 
ing and  back  in  the  evening.  That  gives  me  seven  miles 
a  day.  But  I  am  no  walker,  nor  am  I  an  athlete.  I  walk 
for  health,  and  also  for  the  joy  of  walking. 

I  have  for  many  years  done  my  principal  work  while 
walking.  As  a  judge  I  framed  my  decisions  and  opinions 
in  my  mind  while  walking.  I  can  think  best  while  walk- 
ing, and  then  I  can  come  in  and  sit  down  and  write  off- 
hand the  whole  subject.  But  let  me  say  again  that  I  am 
no  scientific  walker  although  I  take  long  wralks. 

It  is  with  my  walking  as  with  my  being  a  disciple  of 
Epictetus.  During  the  campaign  for  the  mayoralty, 
while  every  abuse  and  lie  was  being  heaped  upon  me,  I 
casually  remarked  in  one  of  my  speeches  that  what  another 
saith  of  thee  concerneth  more  him  who  saith  it  than  it  con- 
cerneth  thee,  as  Epictetus  says.  This  seemed  to  astonish 
the  whole  journalistic  fraternity  in  New  York  City,  as 
though  they  had  never  heard  of  Epictetus  before.  My 
walking  seemed  to  astonish  them  in  the  same  way. 

I  prefer  to  walk  alone  and  think.  I  do  not  hurry;  I 
just  go  along  at  my  leisure.  It  is  true,  now  and  then  some 
one  comes  alongside  of  me  and  thinks  the  gait  is  not  a 
very  leisurely  one,  but  to  me  it  is  leisurely  because  I  am 
used  to  it.  I  do  not  see  why  many  or  most  people  do  not 
walk  to  and  from  their  business  every  day.  A  man  wrote 
me  a  letter  that  it  was  all  very  well  for  me  to  do  it,  but 
that  his  business  was  two  miles  away  from  his  house.  I 
wrote  him  back  that  mine  was  over  three.  There  is  a  feel- 
ing of  independence  and  freedom  when  you  are  walking, 
and  your  blood  warms  up  and  flows  freely,  and  your  body 

43 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

becomes  purified.  As  1  walk  over  the  bridge  every  night 
and  see  the  cars  packed  with  anaemic  young  men  and 
women,  some  of  them  with  cigarettes,  I  cannot  help  pity- 
ing them.  Why  do  they  not  get  out  and  walk  and  make 
their  bodies  ruddy  and  healthy?  Some  of  them  look  out 
of  the  car  windows,  and  point  at  me  as  though  I  was  a 
curiosity  because  I  walk.  I  think  they  are  curiosities  be- 
cause they  ride,  and  injure  themselves  with  the  foul  air 
of  the  cars. 

I  used  to  be  a  horseback  rider,  but  you  have  to  keep 
that  up  or  else  drop  it  altogether,  and  you  cannot  always 
have  time  for  it.  Besides,  it  is  a  rather  violent  exercise. 
I  do  not  think  I  know  any  one  who  has  got  a  dividend  out 
of  it.  Then  I  drove  for  years.  Out  of  that  I  really  got 
nothing.  The  street  car  I  always  abominated.  They  used 
to  have  stoves  in  them,  and  now  they  heat  them  by  elec- 
tricity, and  the  air  becomes  foul.  Some  people  write  to 
me  complaining  that  the  cars  are  too  cold.  They  ought 
to  be  made  to  walk. 

You  ask  me  the  best  time  for  walking.  The  best  time 
is  in  the  sun  in  fall  and  winter,  but  if  you  cannot  walk 
then,  the  best  time  is  whenever  you  can  walk.  Of  course, 
if  you  walk  home  at  night  during  the  long  winter  months 
you  walk  after  dark.  Morning  walking  is  very  refreshing. 

Yes,  the  walking  of  men  like  Weston  does  much  good 
by  example.  It  starts  other  people  walking. 

In  the  country,  the  best  companion  for  a  walk  is  a 
dog.  A  half  dozen  dogs  is  better  yet. 

No,  you  do  not  want  any  book  while  you  are  walking. 
You  want  to  think.  In  the  country  you  can  loiter  about. 
You  do  not  need  to  walk  fast  and  should  not  do  so.  Ob- 
serve nature.  When  you  come  to  a  barnyard  go  in  and  see 
the  pigs,  and  the  fowl  and  the  cows.  Climb  a  fence  now  and 
then  and  go  into  the  fields  and  look  at  the  crops  or  the 
cattle.  I  know  of  no  place  where  there  is  more  philosophy 
than  in  a  barnyard.  You  can  learn  much  from  animals. 
Within  their  circle  they  know  much  more  than  we  do. 
Some  of  them  see  and  hear  things  that  we  are  incapable  of 

44 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

seeing  and  hearing.  Very  few  animals  improve  by  age. 
A  little  pig  a  day  old  knows  as  much  as  his  mother,  and  it 
is  the  same  with  a  calf  or  a  colt. 

I  do  not  like  to  walk  in  a  park.  I  hate  the  roads  and 
walks  in  parks.  I  do  not  like  winding  roads.  I  like  to 
see  where  I  am  going.  Crooked  roads  are  irksome. 

You  want  to  know  what  about  mountain  climbing.  I 
have  done  some  of  that  in  this  country  and  in  Switzerland, 
but  I  do  not  recommend  it.  The  heart  should  not  be  ab- 
normally taxed.  Of  course,  if  your  weight  is  in  your  favor 
you  can  do  some  climbing.  I  went  down  the  other  day 
and  walked  up  ten  flights  to  the  top  of  the  building  where 
the  terrible  fire  was,  as  I  wanted  to  see  the  floors  which 
were  burned  out.  If  you  want  to  test  your  heart  just  walk 
up  ten  flights  without  stopping.  If  you  can  do  it  you  are 
all  right,  no  matter  what  your  age  is. 

Yes,  I  regret  the  falling  off  in  bicycling.  I  enjoyed 
it  for  years  and  it  did  me  the  world  of  good.  If  people 
will  not  walk  I  would  advise  them  to  ride  the  bicycle.  It 
will  renew  their  lives.  Thejr  will  be  so  changed  in  a  month 
that  they  will  be  astonished. 

What  nation,  you  ask,  gets  the  most  out  of  walking. 
The  English.  They  are  great  walkers.  When  I  go  to 
London  I  love  to  just  stand  and  see  them  walking  down 
into  London  in  companies  in  the  morning.  The  sight  is 
inspiring  to  me.  They  walk  in  from  miles  around.  Here 
people  are  afraid  to  walk  a  mile.  The  greatest  rapid 
transit  facilities  in  the  world  are  right  here  in  our  Ameri- 
can cities,  notwithstanding  all  the  grumbling  that  is  going 
on.  Wherever  you  are  here  in  the  city  of  New  York  you 
have  a  street  car  at  your  elbow.  The  result  is  that  every- 
body rides  and  almost  nobody  walks.  This  is  harmful. 
It  would  be  a  good  thing  if  we  had  to  walk  more  or  less. 
In  England  they  walk  way  out  to  places  of  recreation. 
Now,  I  do  not  know  what  else  to  say  to  you.  The  subject 
is  summed  up  very  easily.  Cultivate  the  habit  of  walking 
and  you  will  never  give  it  up,  and  it  will  keep  you  in 
health  and  make  you  charitable  and  forbearing.  If  you 

45 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

take  no  exercise  you  become  dyspeptic.  Your  blood  gets 
thin,  and  you  find  fault  with  everybody,  and  by  and  by 
you  hate  everybody,  and  then  you  want  to  be  mean  to 
everybody.  That  is  a  terrible  condition  to  be  in.  Don't  you 
think  so?  But  if  you  are  in  it  just  get  out  of  it  by  walking 
a  few  miles  every  morning  and  evening.  Go  out  and  walk 
in  the  dark  if  necessary. 


Progress  of  Disease  Prevention 

June  5, 1911. 

Dear  Dr.  Doty:  I  thank  you  for  sending  me  your 
new  book,  "  Prevention  of  Infectious  Diseases."  I  did  not 
lay  it  down  until  I  had  finished  it,  it  interested  me  so  much. 
The  progress  of  disease  prevention  in  the  last  century  was 
great,  and  in  the  latter  part  of  it  marvelous.  Modern 
sanitation  has  almost  done  away  with  diseases  in  the 
Western  world  which  formerly  ravaged  mankind  there. 
The  most  terrible  of  all  was  that  known  under  the  vague 
name  of  "  plague."  It  often  destroyed  from  one-quarter 
to  one-half  of  the  population  in  a  few  months.  Cholera 
and  smallpox  came  next  in  destructiveness ;  and  other 
diseases  went  on  unchecked.  As  you  point  out,  the  dis- 
covery of  the  germ  origin  of  diseases  in  the  last  century  by 
Pasteur  and  Koch  has  revolutionized  sanitation  and  disin- 
fection. Long  standing  rules  of  disinfection  have  become 
obsolete  in  the  case  of  certain  diseases.  The  theory  of  the 
communication  of  such  diseases  by  bedding,  rags,  clothing, 
money,  and  through  the  air  itself,  has  been  exploded  by 
the  discovery  of  their  germ  and  just  how  it  enters  the 
human  body  and  infects  it.  The  germ  of  cholera  can  only 
enter  by  the  mouth  in  drink  or  food  and  is  therefore  easily 
guarded  against  by  following  a  few  simple  rules  of  boiling 
and  cooking.  The  germ  of  yellow  fever  can  only  be  com- 
municated by  the  bite  of  a  mosquito,  and  more  than  that, 
by  the  bite  of  only  one  particular  variety  of  mosquito, 
which  inhabits  only  a  limited  number  of  southern  localities. 

46 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

It  does  not  exist  in  the  northern  part  of  this  country.  You 
therefore  do  not  need  to  bother  with  yellow  fever  subjects 
coming  into  this  port,  as  you  point  out,  except  to  see  that 
they  do  not  move  on  to  a  locality  inhabited  by  the  yellow 
fever  mosquito.  You  clear  up  in  my  mind  something  that 
made  me  doubt  the  mosquito  theory  at  first.  The  late  Dr. 
Homer  L.  Bartlett,  of  Flatbush,  worked  in  the  yellow 
fever  epidemic  at  Bay  Ridge  when  a  young  man  in  about 
1848,  I  think.  He  often  spoke  to  me  about  it  years  later. 
The  bedding  of  the  yellow  fever  ship  was  thrown  over- 
board and  floated  ashore,  and  he  said  that  was  how  the 
disease  was  communicated  ashore;  that  one  or  some  got  it 
by  contact  with  the  bedding,  and  others  from  them,  and 
so  on,  until  a  large  part  of  the  community  had  it.  When 
it  was  announced  a  few  years  ago  that  the  disease  could  be 
communicated  only  by  Mrs.  Mosquito,  of  a  certain  variety 
which  does  not  exist  hereabouts,  I  kept  thinking  of  the 
Bay  Ridge  epidemic,  but  you  make  it  all  plain.  Mrs. 
Mosquito  was  aboard  the  ship  also  and  went  ashore,  and 
there  you  are.  But  I  am  not  so  thoroughly  convinced  of 
what  you  say  about  rats  carrying  diseases  ashore  from 
ships  and  spreading  them  by  their  fleas.  I  give  the  benefit 
of  the  doubt  to  Brer  Rat,  the  same  as  I  often  have  to  do 
in  the  case  of  some  human  beings  who  are  quite  as  nasty 
and  annoying  as  real  rats  are,  and  resemble  them  very 
much  in  their  conduct  and  methods.  I  fear  the  case 
against  Mr.  Rat  has  been  too  much  taken  for  granted. 

I  am  glad  to  see  your  lucid  and  useful  volume  so  free 
from  Greek  nomenclature  and  terminology.  I  seldom  read 
a  scientific  book  without  being  confirmed  in  my  opinion 
that  the  adoption  of  Greek  roots  or  compounds  to  express 
our  scientific  names  was  a  great  mistake.  It  would  be 
much  better  if  we  used  Anglo-Saxon  roots  and  compounds 
for  that  purpose,  the  same  as  the  Germans  use  German 
roots  and  compounds.  Then  everyone  could  read  an  Eng- 
lish scientific  book  without  a  dictionary  at  his  hand  as 
easily  as  the  Germans  read  their  scientific  books.  The 
result  would  be  a  universal  diffusion  of  scientific  knowl- 

47 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

edge  in  the  English-speaking  countries  as  in  Germany. 
As  it  is,  it  is  irksome  to  anyone  to  read  an  English  scientific 
book  who  has  forgotten  or  never  studied  Greek. 

I  read  with  great  interest  your  account  of  your  destruc- 
tion of  mosquito  propagation  in  the  marshes  on  Staten 
Island  by  means  of  tidal  drainage  by  ditches,  for,  as  you 
remember,  we  looked  over  that  work  together. 

Dr.  Alvah  H.  Doty,   Health  Officer, 

Port  of  New  York. 


Every  Citizen  A  Policeman 

June  7,  1911. 

Dear  Sir:  Your  letter  of  June  7  is  at  hand.  You 
ask  if  you  could  be  appointed  a  police  officer  to  serve  with- 
out pay,  for  the  reason  that  you  see  "  so  many  violations 
of  the  law,  spitting  on  the  bridge  platforms  and  walks, 
rowdyism  in  many  ways,  etc.,"  that  you  would  like  to  have 
authority  to  arrest  the  culprits.  My  dear  sir,  let  me  tell 
you  that  every  citizen  has  full  legal  right  to  arrest  anyone 
whom  he  sees  committing  any  criminal  oifense,  big  or  little. 
The  law  of  England  and  of  this  country  has  been  very 
careful  to  confer  no  more  right  in  that  respect  upon  police- 
men and  constables  than  it  confers  on  every  citizen.  You 
have  the  same  right  to  make  an  arrest  for  an  oifense  com- 
mitted in  your  presence  that  any  policeman  has.  But  we 
cannot  all  be  bothering  with  making  arrests,  so  we  employ 
a  certain  number  of  our  fellow  citizens  for  that  purpose, 
and  put  blue  clothes  and  brass  buttons  on  them.  But  their 
clothes  and  their  buttons  add  nothing  whatever  to  their 
right  to  make  arrests  without  warrant.  They  still  have 
only  the  same  right  which  the  law  gives  to  all  of  us.  Be 
so  good  as  to  look  at  section  183  of  the  Code  of  Criminal 
Procedure  and  be  convinced  of  your  powers,  and  then  sail 
right  in  as  hard  and  as  fast  as  you  want  to,  being  careful, 
however,  only  to  arrest  guilty  persons,  for  otherwise  your 

43 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

victims  will  turn  around  and  sue  you  for  damages  for  false 
arrest.    Policemen  have  to  take  the  same  risk. 

Miner  H.  Paddock,  Jr.,  Esq., 

New  York  City. 


A  Government  of  Laws,  Not  of  Men 

June  7,  1911. 

Dear  Sir:  I  am  in  receipt  of  your  letter  saying  that 
all  clubs  should  be  closed  at  10  o'clock  at  night,  also  all 
saloons,  and  also  that  piano  playing  and  singing  should 
not  be  allowed  at  any  hour  of  the  night,  especially  in 
summer,  when  people  cannot  close  their  windows,  so  as  to 
shut  the  noise  out. 

I  hereby  authorize  you  to  carry  out  all  of  these  reforms. 
It  may  be  that  you  will  first  have  to  get  elected  to  the 
Legislature,  and  pass  laws  therefor,  for  you  know  this  is 
a  government  of  laws,  and  not  of  men,  that  is  to  say,  those 
put  in  office  may  not  do  as  they  like,  but  may  only  carry 
out  the  laws  as  they  are  passed  by  the  Legislature.  Did 
you  never  hear  of  this  before  ? 

E.  H.  Jones,  Esq., 

New  York. 


Free  Water  Supply  in  Households 

June  13,  1911. 

Dear  Mr.  Harding:  Your  favor  of  June  12  is  at 
hand.  I  entirely  agree  with  you  in  regard  to  putting  water 
meters  in  dwellings.  I  do  not  believe  in  charging  for 
water  according  to  meter  for  domestic  purposes,  or  for  use 
in  dwellings  or  tenements.  I  examined  the  matter  very 
carefully  over  a  year  ago  and  came  to  that  conclusion,  and 
I  see  no  reason  to  depart  from  it.  If  heads  of  houses  had 
to  pay  for  water  according  to  meter,  they  would  be  uneasy 
every  time  their  wives  and  children  took  baths,  for  such  is 

49 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

human  nature.  The  result  would  be  discomfort  and  un- 
cleanliness.  Every  one  would  hesitate  to  take  a  bath, 
sooner  than  add  to  the  household  expense.  This  would  be 
particularly  so  among  the  poor  and  people  of  moderate 
means.  I  believe  in  getting  an  inexhaustible  source  of 
water  supply,  and  letting  every  one  use  all  the  water  he  or 
she  wants  for  washing  and  bathing  and  domestic  purposes. 
That  is  necessary  to  keep  the  community  clean  and  in  a 
good  sanitary  condition.  Tell  your  Association  to  stick 
to  this. 

Harold  H.  Harding,  Esq., 

New  York  City. 


The  Art  of  Living  Long 

June  16,  1911. 

Dear  Mr.  Butler:  I  thank  you  very  much  for  sending 
me  your  edition  of  Cornaro's  "  The  Art  of  Living  Long." 
I  read  extracts  from  it  several  years  ago  in  a  little  book  of 
that  other  long-lived  man  and  physician,  Dr.  Thompson, 
of  England,  who  died  in  the  last  century  at  a  great  age, 
but  was  born  in  the  preceding  century.  On  receipt  of  your 
book  I  looked  through  my  library  but  was  unable  to  find 
Dr.  Thompson's  book. 

There  is  abroad  an  exaggerated  notion  of  Cornaro's 
way  of  living.  He  was  abstemious  of  food,  but  not  to  the 
exaggerated  extent  which  we  often  find  stated.  He  did 
not  starve  himself;  he  would  not  have  reached  the  great 
age  of  102  if  he  had  done  so.  Pie  drilled  himself  to  the 
habit  of  eating  just  enough  and  no  more.  I  think  most 
any  of  us  could  get  along  with  what  he  ate.  He  tells  us 
that  he  limited  himself  to  fourteen  ounces  of  wine  a  day. 
There  is  a  great  deal  of  nourishment  in  that  amount  of 
wine.  Very  few  of  us  drink  any  wine.  And  then  after 
telling  how  abstemious  he  was  he  makes  this  very  naive 
statement:  "  First,  bread;  then  bread,  soup  or  light  broth, 
with  an  egg,  or  some  other  nice  little  dish  of  this  kind ;  of 

50 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

meats,  I  eat  veal,  kid  and  mutton ;  I  eat  fowls  of  all  kinds, 
as  well  as  partridges,  and  birds  like  the  thrush.  I  also 
partake  of  such  salt-water  fish  as  the  goldney  and  the  like ; 
and  among  the  various  fresh-water  kinds  the  pike  and 
others."  Do  you  not  think  that  you  and  I  could  get  along 
pretty  well  on  this  same  diet  ?  However,  the  essays  of  this 
venerable  Italian  of  the  Sixteenth  Century,  on  how  to  eat 
and  how  to  live,  are  of  great  interest  and  value,  and  I  hope 
you  may  succeed  in  getting  them  generally  read,  for  they 
would  make  abstemiousness  and  the  simple  life  more 
general  than  they  now  are,  with  the  result  of  making  life 
happier  and  longer. 

William  F.  Butler,  Esq., 

Milwaukee,  Wis. 


Night  Courts  Unnecessary 

June  20,  1911. 

I  am  one  of  those  who  have  doubted  that  we  needed 
any  night  court  at  all.  About  all  that  they  exist  for  is  to 
let  people  go  who  should  not  have  been  arrested  at  all. 
When  I  attended  a  session  of  the  night  court  sixty  per 
cent  of  those  brought  in  had  to  be  discharged  on  the  spot 
for  the  reason  that  they  should  not  have  been  arrested  at 
all.  They  were  arrested  for  all  sorts  of  frivolous  and 
ridiculous  reasons.  I  am  trying  to  stop  that  kind  of 
arrests  by  the  police  and  if  I  succeed  there  will  not  be 
much  doing  in  the  night  court.  As  for  the  criminal  classes, 
I  doubt  if  we  ought  to  be  in  any  great  hurry  to  discharge 
them  during  the  night.  It  is  time  enough  to  arraign  them 
in  the  morning. 

On  Cruelty  to  Horses 

July  10,  1911. 

Sir :  The  other  night  when  we  rode  up  and  down  the 
territory  where  the  experiment  of  the  fixed  post  is  being 

51 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

tried,  we  were  both  surprised  at  the  number  of  dead  horses 
in  the  street.  I  have  been  watching  the  horses  ever  since, 
and  I  see  many  of  them  overloaded  in  the  most  cruel 
manner.  Please  take  the  matter  in  hand  and  have  the 
police  instructed  to  interfere  in  all  cases  where  horses  are 
overloaded,  and  if  necessary  make  arrests. 

Rhinelander  Waldo,  Esq., 

Commissioner  of  Police. 


On  Special  Policemen 

July  26,  1911. 

Sir:  I  beg  to  enclose  to  you  a  letter  from  Major 
General  Grant  calling  my  attention  to  the  fact  that  two 
privates  of  the  United  States  Army  were  excluded  from 
the  Sulzer  Dancing  Pavilion  at  Coney  Island  on  July  4. 
Will  you  be  so  good  as  to  make  a  careful  examination  of 
this  matter,  and  report  to  me  all  of  the  particulars. 

I  note  that  General  Grant  says  in  his  letter  that 
Special  Policeman  G.  Clark,  in  accordance  with  the  in- 
structions of  the  proprietor,  excluded  the  soldiers.  I  had 
supposed  that  all  these  special  policemen,  hired  out  by  the 
Police  Department  to  private  individuals  to  do  their  bid- 
ding, and  who  often  commit  the  grossest  outrages  at  the 
command  of  their  employers,  had  been  called  in  and  their 
badges  taken  from  them.  If  any  have  been  allowed  to 
remain  through  oversight,  please  have  them  removed  at 
once.  It  is  contrary  to  the  first  principles  of  government 
to  put  public  officers  in  the  employ  of  private  individuals, 
to  be  paid  by  them,  and  directed  in  the  performance  of 
their  duty  by  them.  If  they  do  not  do  what  these  private 
employers  tell  them  to  do,  then  they  are  discharged.  The 
result  is  that  many  wrongs  are  perpetrated  by  these  special 
officers  at  the  command  of  the  private  individuals  who 
employ  them.  Such  a  condition  is  intolerable.  Let  private 
individuals  and  corporations  hire  their  own  watchmen  and 

52 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

servants  as  best  they  can.    We  should  not  create  police- 
men to  be  hired  out  to  them  and  put  under  their  orders. 

Rhinelander  Waldo,  Esq., 

Commissioner  of  Police. 


On  Special  Policemen 

July  27,  1911. 

Sir:  The  objection  to  special  policemen  is  to  allow 
them  to  be  in  the  employ  and  pay  of  private  individuals. 
It  is  contrary  to  the  first  principles  of  government  to 
allow  such  a  thing.  No  public  officer  should  be  in  the 
employ  and  pay  and  subject  to  the  orders  of  any  private 
individual  or  corporation.  To  put  him  in  such  a  position 
is  to  make  it  inevitable  that  he  will  obey  the  orders  of  his 
employer  instead  of  acting  as  a  sworn  public  officer  from 
the  standpoint  of  his  public  duty  and  judgment  only,  as 
all  public  officers  should  do.  How  can  he  do  otherwise 
than  obey  his  employer  when  he  may  refuse  to  pay  him 
and  discharge  him  unless  he  obeys  his  orders. 

The  case  of  the  public  service  corporations  who  carry 
passengers  may  be  different.  They  perform  a  public 
function,  and  the  City  may  therefore  need  to  police  them 
to  a  certain  extent  to  protect  passengers.  Will  you  be 
so  good  as  to  prepare  me  a  report  on  that  subject.  Let 
me  know  the  extent  to  which  we  police  them  now,  and 
how  it  is  done,  and  how  in  your  judgment  it  should  be 
continued,  if  it  is  to  be  continued.  It  may  be  proper  to 
police  them  by  special  policemen  whose  salaries  are  paid 
by  them;  but  in  that  case  we  should  not  make  special 
policemen  of  any  one  or  every  one  presented  by  these  cor- 
porations, but  should,  on  the  contrary,  constitute  a  special 
squad  of  special  policemen  and  assign  them  for  that  kind 
of  duty  under  direction  and  control  of  a  discreet  officer, 
and  change  them  from  time  to  time,  so  as  to  do  away  with 
the  possibility  of  the  companies  making  them  presents  in 
order  to  induce  them  to  do  things  which  they  should  not 

53 


MAYOR  GAYNOITS  LETTERS  AND  SPEECHES 

do,  as  in  the  case  of  strikes,  and  the  like.  And,  also,  the 
companies  should  deposit  a  fund  with  the  Police  Com- 
missioner in  advance  for  the  payment  of  their  salaries. 
They  should  not  be  dependent  on  the  companies  for  pay- 
ment, but  on  the  City. 

I  suppose  you  are  well  aware  that  when  these  special 
officers  commit  an  unlawful  arrest  or  battery  and  their 
employers  are  sued  for  it,  the  courts  decide  that  the  em- 
ployers are  not  liable,  on  the  ground  that  such  special 
officers  being  public  officers  are  presumed  to  act  from 
the  standpoint  of  their  public  duty,  and  not  under  the 
orders  of  their  employers.  In  order  to  recover  against 
the  employer  it  is  necessary  to  prove  that  he  ordered  the 
unlawful  thing  to  be  done,  whereas,  in  the  case  of  his  regu- 
lar employees  he  is  liable  for  their  unlawful  acts,  as  a  rule, 
whether  he  directed  them  or  not.  By  having  these  special 
officers,  employers  shirk  such  liability. 

You  also  know  the  trouble  I  had  with  these  special 
officers  in  the  cloak  makers'  strike,  the  express  companies' 
strike,  and  other  strikes.  The  special  officers  in  the  em- 
ploy of  employers  in  strike  disputes  commit  all  sorts  01 
unlawful  acts.  In  the  cloak  makers'  strike  the  employees 
came  to  me  and  asked  me  to  have  a  list  of  their  men  desig- 
nated as  special  officers  for  them,  as  they  had  as  much 
right  to  special  officers  as  the  other  side  had.  I  had  to 
admit  that  they  had  as  much  right  to  them  as  the  em- 
ployers had,  and  I  therefore  allowed  neither  side  to  have 
them,  but  had  the  regular  police  preserve  order.  This 
proved  to  be  satisfactory  to  both  sides  in  every  strike,  and 
it  is  the  only  lawful  waj7. 

Rhinelander  Waldo,  Esq., 

Commissioner  of  Police. 

Boys  in  Streets 

August  10,  1911. 

Dear  Madam :  Your  favor  complaining  of  boys  play- 
ing in  the  streets  is  at  hand.  You  ask  if  a  law  could  not 

54 


MAYOR    GAYNQR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

be  passed  prohibiting  boys  playing  in  the  streets,  saying 
that  it  "would  be  a  blessing  to  humanity."  I  might  ask 
you  whether  if  such  a  law  were  passed  you  think  it  could 
be  enforced?  Our  boys  have  a  hard  time  to  get  along  in 
the  crowded  districts  of  the  city.  They  must  play  some- 
where. I  went  around  to  the  recreation  piers  the  other 
night  and  found  great  numbers  of  them  there,  but  they 
cannot  all  go  there.  We  must  bear  with  them.  Have  you 
any  boys?  If  you  had  do  you  think  you  could  keep  them 
off  the  streets? 

Mrs.  Jessie  F.  Stearns, 

New  York  City. 


Street  Ball  Playing 

August  10,  1911. 

Dear  Boys:  It  is  too  bad  that  you  cannot  play  ball 
somewhere  in  peace.  Of  course  the  police  cannot  always 
let  you  play  on  the  street,  but  now  and  then  they  can  wink 
so  hard  with  both  eyes  as  not  to  see  you  when  you  are 
doing  no  harm  to  passersby  and  the  street  is  not  crowded. 
In  the  parks  you  may  only  play  on  the  places  assigned 
to  baseball  playing.  The  keepers  will  not  chase  you  out 
unless  you  play  where  baseball  is  not  permitted.  I  wish 
we  had  the  grounds  for  you  all  to  play,  but  unfortunately 
we  have  not.  So,  boys,  do  the  best  you  can,  and  I  will 
help  you  a  little  now  and  then  if  you  send  me  word. 

Masters  LeGrande  Sampson,  William  E. 
Westbrooke,  Samuel  C.  Ward,  Jr., 
Joseph  Carev  and  Raymond  Luetke, 

New  York  City. 

A  Book  Excluded  from  the  Library 

August  14,  1911. 

Dear  Miss  Holland:  On  your  complaint  that  Mr. 
George  H.  Brennan's  novel  "  Anna  Malleen  "  was  un- 

55 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

justly  discriminated  against  by  the  trustees  of  the  Public 
Library,  by  their  refusal  to  admit  it  into  the  library  for 
circulation,  I  looked  it  through  last  night,  after  trying 
hard  to  read  it  consecutively.  I  am  satisfied  that  the 
notion  of  the  author  that  his  book  was  excluded  on  moral 
grounds  is  erroneous.  It  is  quite  harmless,  but  very 
stupid.  It  must  have  been  rejected  on  that  ground.  I 
cannot  help  calling  to  mind  that  scene  of  Cervantes  in 
which  he  pictures  the  priest,  the  barber  and  the  niece  sit- 
ting in  judgment  on  the  books  of  Don  Quixote's  library, 
sparing  a  few,  but  committing  all  the  others  to  the  flames, 
and  especially  the  stupid  ones.  If  this  book  had  been 
there  I  am  certain  it  would  not  have  escaped  the  flames. 

Miss  Mildred  Holland, 

New  York  City. 


To  a  Clerk  Who  Objected  to  Working  Overtime 

December  6,  1911. 

Sir:  If  I  were  you  I  would  do  everything  I  was 
asked  to  do.  That  is  the  way  to  get  on  in  life.  Did  you 
ever  hear  it  said  that  he  who  takes  care  to  do  no  more 
than  he  is  paid  for  will  never  be  paid  for  more  than  he 
does?  Go  right  in  and  do  everything  from  sunrise  to 
sunset  and  you  will  go  right  up  all  the  time.  What  do 
you  think  of  that?  ' 

Mr.  Joseph  Donahue, 

New  York  City. 


Roof  Playgrounds 

August  29,  1911. 

My  Dear  Boys:     Your  several  letters  informing  me 
that  you  won  the  ball  game  on  the  roof  playground  of 

56 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

Public  School  188  last  Thursday  night,  and  reminding  me 
of  my  promise  to  send  a  set  of  balls  and  gloves  to  the 
winners  are  at  hand.  I  note  that  one  of  your  letters  seems 
to  betray  doubt  that  I  will  keep  my  word.  I  do  not 
blame  the  writer  for  his  doubts,  considering  the  many  ill 
things  which  are  being  publicly  said  of  me.  They  may 
well  create  doubts  even  in  the  minds  of  the  boys.  I  am 
sending  you  a  box  of  twelve  balls,  and  also  a  set  of  mitts 
and  gloves.  I  want  to  tell  you  how  much  I  enjoyed  my 
visit  to  the  roof  playgrounds  of  the  public  schools  last 
Thursday  night.  I  never  saw  finer  dancing  by  girls.  I 
hope  that  the  boys  will  be  given  dancing  lessons  next 
year.  I  regret  that  these  playgrounds  were  closed  so  early 
as  August  26  for  lack  of  music.  Next  year  we  will  try 
to  remedy  that  also.  The  playgrounds  and  piers  ought  to 
be  kept  open  as  late  in  the  season  as  possible.  I  also 
thank  you  for  electing  me  an  honorary  member  of  your 
ball  club. 

Master  Benjamin  Blau, 

,  Crotona  Ball  Club, 

New  York  City. 


On  Making  Restitution 

September  6,  1911. 

Dear  Sir:  Your  letter  is  at  hand.  You  state  that 
some  years  ago  you  were  a  witness  before  me  when  I  was 
a  judge,  and  a  false  witness,  and  deceived  me,  so  that  I 
decided  the  case  wrongly,  and  that  you  make  this  confes- 
sion to  me  because  you  have  become  a  Christian  and  want 
forgiveness.  According  to  my  views  you  have  to  do  more 
than  this  to  be  forgiven.  You  have  to  make  amends. 
Mere  talk  does  not  purchase  forgiveness.  Where  any- 
thing is  stolen  or  got  unjustly  it  must  be  refunded  before 
forgiveness  can  be  expected,  if  the  sinner  be  able  to  refund. 
That  is  the  way  I  understand  it.  So  you  had  better  tell 
me  what  the  case  was  so  that  I  may  look  it  up  and  see 

57 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

be  the  sort  of  man  that  will  do  that  sort  of  thing.  If  I 
had  time  I  would  marry  you  all  for  nothing.  How  would 
that  go?  It  would  evidently  suit  some  of  you,  but  ninety- 
nine  out  of  every  hundred  would  want  to  thrust  a  fee  into 
my  hand,  for  such  is  the  good  nature  and  generosity  of 
the  normal  man  to  the  man  who  marries  him  to  the  girl  of 
his  choice. 

Ralph  E.  Cron,  Esq., 

New  York  City. 


Calling  Out  the  Military 

Nov.  14,  1911. 

Dear  Mr.  Stanton:  Your  letter  is  in  error  in  some 
particulars.  The  men  who  quit  work  in  the  Street  Clean- 
ing Department  are  not  two-thirds  non-citizens  as  you 
state.  On  the  contrary,  they  are  all  citizens  either  by 
birth  or  naturalization.  So  your  advice  to  deport  them 
has  no  foundation.  Nor  do  I  intend  to  call  out  the  mili- 
tary. This  is  not  a  government  of  military  force.  It  is 
a  free  government.  We  call  out  the  military  only  in  case 
of  dire  necessity,  that  is  to  say,  when  the  regular  civil 
authorities  are  unable  to  put  down  tumult.  Do  you  not 
understand  this?  I  do  not  like  to  have  people  write  me 
to  call  out  the  militia  and  shoot  people  down.  A  Mayor 
of  New  York  would  have  to  forget  himself  to  do  a  thing 
like  that  except  in  the  last  extremity.  I  hope  the  time  is 
far  distant  when  it  will  be  necessary  to  call  out  troops  to 
shoot  any  one  down.  Ours  is  a  government  of  law,  and 
the  military  power  has  to  keep  its  hands  off  until  the 
regular  agencies  of  civil  government  are  unable  to  pre- 
serve order. 

Willard  G.  Stanton,  Esq., 

Manhattan. 

60 


Propagating  Vices  in  Prisons 

November  22,  1911. 

Sir:  Your  favor  of  November  20th  informing  me  in 
full  of  the  great  necessity  of  a  new  reformatory,  and  a 
new  workhouse  with  a  single  cell  for  each  inmate  is  at 
hand.  The  account  you  give  of  an  average  of  eight  men 
to  each  cell,  and  of  four  women  to  each  cell,  and  the 
immoralities  which  inevitably  result  therefrom,  is  most 
distressing.  We  are  arresting  and  convicting  people  for 
certain  vices  not  very  easy  to  mention  by  name,  and  at 
the  same  time  by  confining  more  than  one  person  in  each 
cell  in  our  penal  institutions  we  are  encouraging  and 
propagating  these  very  same  vices.  You  also  point  out 
that  in  place  of  there  being  an  air  space  or  ration  of  400 
cubic  feet  to  each  person,  as  the  laws  of  modern  hygiene 
require,  there  is  a  space  or  ration  of  only  226  cubic  feet. 
It  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  all  the  prison  congresses, 
international,  national  and  state,  have  through  their  visit- 
ing committees  condemned  these  things  as  uncivilized.  No 
doubt  the  funds  should  be  appropriated  forthwith  to 
remedy  these  evils,  although  the  amount  necessary  may 
be  millions.  The  trouble  has  been  for  the  last  few  years, 
and  is  now,  a  disposition  in  the  government  of  the  city 
to  cut  down  all  expenses  to  the  last  dollar,  and  to  omit 
necessary  appropriations  entirely,  especially  in  the  case 
of  expenditures  chargeable  to  corporate  stock,  in  order  to 
have  funds  or  borrowing  credit  to  build  subways.  Some 
of  us  have  tried  to  remove  this  condition  by  getting  the 
offer  of  operating  companies  to  put  up  part  or  all  of  the 
money  necessary  for  subway  construction  accepted  by  the 
city.  As  you  are  aware  one  company  offered  to  put  up 
about  $100,000,000  for  that  purpose,  but  in  one  way  or 
another  its  offer  was  not  adopted  but  frittered  away.  I 
am  quite  certain  the  Comptroller  is  alive  to  this  matter, 
and  I  trust  that  the  subways  will  in  the  end  be  financed 
by  private  capital  to  an  extent  which  will  leave  us  a  cor- 
porate stock  margin  adequate  for  the  things  which  you 

61 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

mention,  and  for  hospitals,  court  houses,  bridge  ap- 
proaches, parks  and  playgrounds,  and  many  other  things 
which  I  need  not  mention  and  which  are  now  held  up.  The 
notion  was  propagated  in  the  community  by  false  state- 
ments daily  repeated  in  certain  newspapers,  that  if  the 
operating  companies  put  money  into  subway  construction 
they  would  own  the  subways,  whereas  the  subway  statute 
is  such  that  only  the  city  can  build  and  own  subways,  who- 
ever puts  up  the  capital,  and  the  operating  companies  can- 
not get  a  lease  or  franchise  one  day  longer  by  putting  up 
capital  for  subway  construction.  Whether  the  city  puts 
up  the  capital  or  the  companies  put  up  the  capital  the 
franchise  they  get  is  the  very  same.  I  have  always  deemed 
it  lamentable  that  one  or  two  newspaper  proprietors 
should  have  been  able  by  the  persistency  of  their  false 
statements  to  propagate  a  contrary  notion  even  among 
intelligent  people. 

P.  A.  Whitney,  Esq., 

Commissioner  of  Correction, 

New  York  City. 


Advising  Jews  to  be  Farmers 

November  27,  1911. 

Sir :  I  regret  that  I  am  not  able  to  be  present  at  your 
meeting.  Its  object  is  to  encourage  the  Jews  to  become 
farmers  instead  of  crowding  together  in  cities.  We  have 
here  in  this  city  a  large  number  of  Jews,  10,000  it  may  be, 
engaged  in  peddling,  principally  from  pushcarts.  It 
would  be  a  great  blessing  to  them  if  they  could  be  removed 
from  the  city  to  farms.  They  certainly  could  not  have 
a  harder  time  to  make  a  living  as  farmers  than  they  have 
now.  On  the  contrary  they  would  make  good  livings  as 
farmers.  There  is  no  reason  why  the  Jews  should  not 
be  farmers.  Originally  and  for  thousands  of  years,  the 
Jewish  race  was  given  almost  exclusively  to  agriculture. 
Everything  should  be  done  to  induce  the  Jews  to  return  to 

62 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

agriculture.  The  reasons  why  they  ceased  to  be  agricul- 
turists in  the  Christian  world  are  very  well  known.  I  need 
not  repeat  them  here.  I  trust  your  meeting  will  be  of 
great  benefit. 

Joseph  W.  Pincus,  Esq., 

New  York  City. 


Cato  as  a  Farmer 

November  28,  1911. 

Dear  Mr.  Hubbell :  I  spent  last  evening  most  pleas- 
antly reading  Fairfax  Harrison's  translation  of  the  elder 
Cato's  treatise  on  farming  which  you  sent  me.  It  is 
delightful  and  gave  me  complete  mental  relaxation.  The 
two  thousand  years  which  have  passed  since  it  was  written 
have  not  detracted  either  from  its  charm  or  its  usefulness. 
He  even  tells  how  to  smoke  and  cure  hams  in  substantially 
the  way  which  has  been  used  ever  since.  They  knew  as 
much  about  seed  selection  then  as  we  know  now.  When 
I  was  a  boy  we  used  to  use  seed  from  our  own  crops,  and 
the  result  was  that  the  potatoes  and  corn  grew  smaller  and 
smaller  year  after  year,  and  for  a  long  time  we  did  not 
know  what  was  the  matter.  When  we  brought  in  new 
seeds,  especially  from  a  more  northern  section,  we  had 
abundant  proof  of  what  the  trouble  was.  His  advice  con- 
cerning manuring  the  land  is  perfect.  We  speak  now  of 
the  soil  being  sour.  Cato  says  that  by  taking  a  section  of 
soil  from  the  ground  and  pouring  water  through  it  and 
then  tasting  the  water  we  can  ascertain  whether  the  soil  is 
sour.  If  it  be  sour  he  says  the  water  will  pucker  your 
mouth.  His  advice  about  buying  a  farm  is  very  shrewd. 
A  man  from  the  city  will  go  and  buy  a  farm  without  look- 
ing to  see  whether  there  be  a  drop  of  water  on  it.  Old 
Cato  was  too  sharp  for  that.  Nothing  is  more  important 
on  a  farm  than  water.  The  suggestion  that  it  is  better 
to  buy  a  farm  in  an  undeveloped  state,  and  have  the 

63 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

mention,  and  for  hospitals,  court  houses,  bridge  ap- 
proaches, parks  and  playgrounds,  and  many  other  things 
which  I  need  not  mention  and  which  are  now  held  up.  The 
notion  was  propagated  in  the  community  by  false  state- 
ments daily  repeated  in  certain  newspapers,  that  if  the 
operating  companies  put  money  into  subway  construction 
they  would  own  the  subways,  whereas  the  subway  statute 
is  such  that  only  the  city  can  build  and  own  subways,  who- 
ever puts  up  the  capital,  and  the  operating  companies  can- 
not get  a  lease  or  franchise  one  day  longer  by  putting  up 
capital  for  subway  construction.  Whether  the  city  puts 
up  the  capital  or  the  companies  put  up  the  capital  the 
franchise  they  get  is  the  very  same.  I  have  always  deemed 
it  lamentable  that  one  or  two  newspaper  proprietors 
should  have  been  able  by  the  persistency  of  their  false 
statements  to  propagate  a  contrary  notion  even  among 
intelligent  people. 

P.  A.  Whitney,  Esq., 

Commissioner  of  Correction, 

New  York  City. 


Advising  Jews  to  be  Farmers 

November  27,  1911. 

Sir :  I  regret  that  I  am  not  able  to  be  present  at  your 
meeting.  Its  object  is  to  encourage  the  Jews  to  become 
farmers  instead  of  crowding  together  in  cities.  We  have 
here  in  this  city  a  large  number  of  Jews,  10,000  it  may  be, 
engaged  in  peddling,  principally  from  pushcarts.  It 
would  be  a  great  blessing  to  them  if  they  could  be  removed 
from  the  city  to  farms.  They  certainly  could  not  have 
a  harder  time  to  make  a  living  as  farmers  than  they  have 
now.  On  the  contrary  they  would  make  good  livings  as 
farmers.  There  is  no  reason  why  the  Jews  should  not 
be  farmers.  Originally  and  for  thousands  of  years,  the 
Jewish  race  was  given  almost  exclusively  to  agriculture. 
Everything  should  be  done  to  induce  the  Jews  to  return  to 

62 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

agriculture.  The  reasons  why  they  ceased  to  be  agricul- 
turists in  the  Christian  world  are  very  well  known.  I  need 
not  repeat  them  here.  I  trust  your  meeting  will  be  of 
great  benefit. 

Joseph  W.  Pincus,  Esq., 

New  York  City. 


November  28,  1911. 

Dear  Mr.  Hubbell :  I  spent  last  evening  most  pleas- 
antly reading  Fairfax  Harrison's  translation  of  the  elder 
Cato's  treatise  on  farming  which  you  sent  me.  It  is 
delightful  and  gave  me  complete  mental  relaxation.  The 
two  thousand  years  which  have  passed  since  it  was  written 
have  not  detracted  either  from  its  charm  or  its  usefulness. 
He  even  tells  how  to  smoke  and  cure  hams  in  substantially 
the  way  which  has  been  used  ever  since.  They  knew  as 
much  about  seed  selection  then  as  we  know  now.  When 
I  was  a  boy  we  used  to  use  seed  from  our  own  crops,  and 
the  result  was  that  the  potatoes  and  corn  grew  smaller  and 
smaller  year  after  year,  and  for  a  long  time  we  did  not 
know  what  was  the  matter.  When  we  brought  in  new 
seeds,  especially  from  a  more  northern  section,  we  had 
abundant  proof  of  what  the  trouble  was.  His  advice  con- 
cerning manuring  the  land  is  perfect.  We  speak  now  of 
the  soil  being  sour.  Cato  says  that  by  taking  a  section  of 
soil  from  the  ground  and  pouring  water  through  it  and 
then  tasting  the  water  we  can  ascertain  whether  the  soil  is 
sour.  If  it  be  sour  he  says  the  water  will  pucker  your 
mouth.  His  advice  about  buying  a  farm  is  very  shrewd. 
A  man  from  the  city  will  go  and  buy  a  farm  without  look- 
ing to  see  whether  there  be  a  drop  of  water  on  it.  Old 
Cato  was  too  sharp  for  that.  Nothing  is  more  important 
on  a  farm  than  water.  The  suggestion  that  it  is  better 
to  buy  a  farm  in  an  undeveloped  state,  and  have  the 

63 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

pleasure  of  clearing  and  developing  it  yourself,  is  capital. 
What  he  says  about  wine  growing  is  useful  in  countries 
where  wine  is  grown.  It  seems  that  old  Cato  used  to  have 
a  good  bout  at  wine  himself  occasionally.  He  also  was 
very  fond  of  cabbages.  I  am  not  certain  whether  his  state- 
ment that  if  you  have  drunk  too  much  wine  at  dinner  you 
have  only  to  eat  five  cabbage  leaves  next  morning  to  feel 
as  though  you  had  drunk  none  is  correct.  Suppose  you 
and  I  try  that  some  day  and  see.  Your  farm  is  up  in  the 
Berkshire  Hills,  while  mine  is  down  on  Long  Island,  but 
I  suppose  we  both  raise  some  cabbages. 

Charles  Bulkley  Hubbell,  Esq., 

New  York  City. 


Books 

December  4th,  1911. 

Dear  Mr.  Smith:  I  thank  you  exceedingly  for  the 
edition  of  Don  Quixote  which  you  sent  me.  The  illustra- 
tions by  Dore  are  grand.  The  translation  I  notice  is  by 
Motteux.  Of  the  English  translations  I  deem  that  by 
Jarvis  the  best.  It  is  so  deft  and  nimble.  I  imagine  that 
it  approaches  the  spirit  of  the  original  more  nearly  than 
any  of  the  others.  When  a  younger  man  I  often  enter- 
tained the  intention  of  trying  to  learn  Spanish  in  order 
to  read  Don  Quixote  in  the  original.  I  envy  your  being 
able  to  do  so.  In  translating  a  work  of  imagination  it  is 
almost  always  necessary  to  depart  from  literalness  in  order 
to  give  the  genius  and  spirit.  This  Jarvis  does,  while 
Motteux  is  often  painfully  literal.  And  yet  his  literal- 
ness  brings  out  some  things  that  should  not  be  lost.  For 
instance,  in  the  account  of  Don  Quixote's  manner  of  liv- 
ing, and  what  dishes  he  ate  each  day  of  the  week,  Jarvis 
says,  "  an  omelet  on  Saturdays,"  which  is  certainly  com- 
mon-place enough.  But  Motteux  gives  the  original 
exactly,  namely,  "  griefs  and  groans  on  Saturdays," 
which  was  some  kind  of  a  mixed  dish  which  evidently 

64 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

caused  belly  ache,  or  some  sort  of  distress  in  the  paunch. 
But  cases  like  that  are  few,  and  the  nimble  and  light 
touches  of  Jarvis  which  let  you  right  into  the  spirit  of  the 
narrative  are  often  departures  from  the  literal  rendering 
of  the  original.  At  best  a  translation  of  a  work  of  imag- 
ination bears  about  the  same  resemblance  to  the  original 
as  the  reverse  side  of  a  tapestry  to  the  true  side.  That 
is  why  I  am  sorry  I  do  not  understand  Spanish  as  you  do. 
If  I  did  we  could  continue  that  discussion  of  the  writings 
of  Cervantes  which  we  commenced  on  the  train  up  from 
Richmond. 

Let  me  cite  a  passage  or  two  to  show  how  much  more 
attractive  the  translation  of  Jarvis  is.  After  Don  Quixote 
is  knocked  down  by  the  sail  of  the  wind-mill,  Sancho 
Panza  comes  galloping  up  on  Dapple  and  says,  according 
to  Motteux:  "  Mercy  on  me,  did  not  I  give  your  Worship 
fair  warning?  Did  not  I  tell  you  they  were  wind-mills, 
and  that  nobody  could  think  otherwise  unless  he  also  had 
wind-mills  in  his  head?"  But  Jarvis  more  nimbly  says: 
"  God  save  us,  quoth  Sancho  Panza,  did  not  I  warn  you 
to  have  a  care  of  what  you  did,  for  that  they  were  nothing 
but  wind-mills,  and  nobody  could  mistake  them  but  one 
that  had  the  like  in  his  head."  And  again,  speaking  of 
the  company  at  Antonio's  house  who  were  entertaining 
Don  Quixote,  Motteux  says :  "  Among  others  were  two 
ladies  of  an  airy  and  waggish  disposition."  Contrast  this 
with  the  way  Jarvis  puts  it:  "  Among  the  ladies  there 
were  two  of  an  arch  and  jocose  disposition."  But  I  must 
not  multiply  these  instances  except  to  quote  the  rendering 
of  a  proverb.  Motteux  makes  Don  Quixote  say  to 
Sancho :  "I  have  always  heard  it  said  that  to  do  a  kind- 
ness to  clowns  is  like  throwing  water  into  the  sea."  Jarvis 
has  it  that  "  to  do  good  to  the  vulgar  is  to  throw  water  into 
the  sea." 

Cervantes  and  Shakespeare  died  on  the  same  day— 
or  rather  one  died  ten  days  later  than  the  other  according 
to  the  modern  reckoning  of  time,  but  I  do  not  remember 
which.    But  I  find  they  made  use  of  the  same  expression. 

65 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

Sancho  Panza  is  made  to  say,  "  There  is  some  difference 
between  a  hawk  and  a  handsaw."  Shakespeare  says  in 
Hamlet,  "  I  know  a  hawk  from  a  handsaw." 

Years  ago  I  copied  every  proverb,  or  philosophical  or 
wise  saying  there  is  in  Don  Quixote.  I  think  that  an  equal 
number  of  good  ones  is  not  found  in  any  other  book  except 
the  Bible.  I  am  half  tempted  to  quote  a  few  to  you  and 
let  you  compare  them  with  the  original.  '*  Who  but  a 
madman  would  mind  what  a  madman  says,"  is  one.  "  Dili- 
gence is  the  mother  of  good  fortune,"  is  another.  And 
this:  "It  is  pleasant  to  govern  though  it  be  but  a  flock  of 
sheep."  And  this:  "  Some  people  go  out  for  wool  and 
come  home  shorn."  And  this:  "  Letters  without  virtue 
are  pearls  upon  a  dunghill."  And  this:  "  Though  habit 
and  example  do  much,  good  sense  is  the  foundation  of 
good  language."  And  this:  'When  they  give  you  a 
heifer  be  ready  with  the  rope."  And  this  of  the  same  mean- 
ing: '  When  good  fortune  knocks,  make  haste  to  let  her 
in."  And  some  or  all  of  those  elected  to  office  might  well 
say  with  Sancho  Panza  when  his  old  clothes  were  being 
taken  off  and  he  was  being  dressed  up  in  his  official  gar- 
ments when  he  was  entering  upon  the  government  of  his 
island:  "  Clothe  me  as  you  will,  I  shall  be  Sancho  Panza 
still."  And  it  were  well  if  they  could  all  say,  as  Sancho 
did  when  he  gave  up  his  governorship  and  they  had 
stripped  him  of  his  official  garments  to  reclothe  him  with 
his  old  ones :  "  Naked  came  I  into  this  government  and 
naked  come  I  out  of  it."  And  let  me  wind  up  with  this 
one  which  the  ladies  might  take  offense  at:  "  Between  the 
yea  and  the  nay  of  a  woman  I  would  not  undertake  to 
thrust  the  point  of  a  needle." 

And  while  I  am  at  it,  and  since  we  went  into  this  book 
talk  on  the  train  at  all,  I  will  set  down  for  you  the  books 
which  I  think  have  had  the  largest  effect  on  my  life.  I 
will  give  them  in  the  order  in  which  I  think  I  was  affected 
by  them: 

The  Bible, 
Euclid, 

60 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

Shakespeare, 

Hume's  History  of  England  (especially  the  notes) , 

Homer, 

Milton, 

Cervantes  (Don  Quixote), 

Rabelais, 

Gil  Bias, 

Franklin's  Autobiography  and  letters, 

Plutarch's  Lives, 

The  Autobiography  of  Benvenuto  Cellini, 

Gibbon's  Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire, 

Adam  Smith's  Wealth  of  Nations, 

Bacon's  Works. 

I  have  left  out  of  this  list  those  works  on  what  for  want 
of  a  better  name  I  may  call  the  philosophy  of  history.  I 
have  derived  immense  satisfaction  and,  I  hope,  much 
profit,  from  them.  And  no  doubt  I  have  omitted  some 
books  I  would  mention  if  I  took  the  time. 

R.  A.  C.  Smith,  Esq., 

New  York  City. 


Grand  Jurors 

December  6,  1911. 

Dear  Sirs :  On  consideration  I  do  not  wish  to  recom- 
mend that  the  Board  of  Aldermen  give  you  extra  pay. 
Men  fit  to  serve  on  Grand  Juries  ought  to  be  willing  to  do 
it  for  the  honor  of  it.  Grand  Jurors  have  a  high  function 
to  perform,  and  ought  to  be  men  who  know  that  they  are 
not  to  be  led  by  the  nose  by  the  District  Attorney,  the 
Judge,  or  any  one  else. 

Messrs.  Henry  W.  Smith, 
John  R.  White, 
Robert  F.  Craig, 

Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 

67 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

Arresting  Boys 

August  29,  1911. 

Sir:  William  Eag'jn,  an  18  year  old  boy,  residing 
with  his  parents  at  53,  Fourth  Avenue,  Brooklyn,  com- 
plains to  me  that  Detective  Barry  arrested  him  in  the 
street,  locked  him  up  in  the  station  house  over  night  on 
the  charge  of  vagrancy,  and  the  next  morning  when  the 
case  was  called  in  court  Detective  Barry  made  no  charge 
against  him.  Please  make  a  most  careful  examination 
into  this  case.  It  will  never  do  to  allow  boys  to  be  arrested 
and  locked  up  over  night  for  no  offense.  Please  let  me 
have  a  full  report  of  the  matter. 

Rhinelander  Waldo,  Esq., 

Commissioner  of  Police. 

A  False  Police  Report  on  a  Boy's  Arrest 

December  19,  1911. 

Sir:  Some  months  ago  I  wrote  to  you  of  the  case  of 
the  eighteen  year  old  boy  William  Eagen,  who  called  upon 
me  in  person  and  made  his  complaint.  He  has  been  well 
brought  up,  and  has  always  lived  at  home  with  his  parents 
at  53,  4th  Avenue,  Brooklyn.  Detective  Barry  arrested 
him  in  the  street  near  his  home  on  August  24th  last  with- 
out a  warrant.  He  had  never  before  been  arrested  or  ac- 
cused of  any  offense.  He  was  taken  to  the  station  house 
and  locked  up  over  night  in  a  cell.  The  next  morning  the 
said  officer  arraigned  him  before  a  magistrate,  and  made 
a  written  complaint  on  oath  that  he  was  a  vagrant,  i.  e.,  a 
person  without  a  home,  wandering  about,  and  with  no 
means  of  support.  The  officer  knew  that  this  was  untrue. 
The  boy  lived  at  home  and  worked  daily  with  his  father 
who  is  janitor  of  17  buildings.  When  the  case  was  called 
on  August  28th  for  a  hearing,  the  officer  stated  that  he 
could  not  prove  the  charge,  and  the  boy  was  discharged. 
In  my  letter  to  you  I  asked  for  a  full  report  of  the  matter. 
Later  you  sent  to  me  the  report  of  Inspector  Hughes, 
chief  of  the  detective  bureau,  concurred  in  by  the  Second 

68 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

Deputy  Police  Commissioner.  That  report  disclosed  that 
the  real  reason  for  the  hoy's  arrest  was  that  a  burglary  of 
the  apartments  of  C.  W.  Daniels,  at  449,  State  Street, 
Brooklyn,  had  been  committed,  and  that  the  boy  was 
"  suspected  "  of  having  committed  the  same.  The  things 
stolen  were  a  watch,  engraved  with  Mr.  Daniels'  name,  a 
locket,  studded  with  diamonds,  and  engraved  in  the  same 
way,  and  a  double  chain  and  fob.  The  reason  for  such 
suspicion  given  in  the  said  report  was  that  the  father  of 
the  boy  was  janitor  of  the  building  in  which  Mr.  Daniels 
had  his  apartments,  that  the  bulldog  did  not  arouse  Mr. 
Daniels  when  the  burglar  entered,  that  therefore  the  burg- 
lary was  committed  by  some  one  on  good  terms  with  the 
bulldog,  and  that  therefore  the  burglar  was  probably 
young  Eagen.  Such  was  the  farfetched  if  not  ridiculous 
theory.  The  report  went  on  to  state  that  after  being  ar- 
rested and  on  his  way  to  the  station  house  young  Eagen 
told  the  officers  who  had  him  in  charge  that  the  locket 
lost  by  Mr.  Daniels  contained  17  diamonds,  that  it  had 
been  broken  up,  and  that  it  was  useless  to  look  for  it. 
The  report  also  states  that  while  young  Eagen  was  locked 
up  in  the  cell  another  officer  heard  him  state  to  a  prisoner 
in  an  adjoining  cell,  who  had  been  arrested  on  suspicion 
of  the  same  offense,  "  I  think  they  have  got  it  on  us,"  to 
which  the  other  prisoner  responded,  "  Shut  up,  some  one 
might  be  listening."  The  name  of  this  other  prisoner  is 
Grant,  hereinafter  mentioned.  To  this  report  was  at- 
tached a  letter  of  the  Second  Deputy  Commissioner  to 
you  stating  that  in  his  opinion  the  action  of  the  officer 
who  made  the  arrest  and  false  charge  of  vagrancy  was 
justifiable.  I  felt  constrained  to  write  to  you  that  his  con- 
duct was  unjustifiable.  The  boy  was  not  a  vagrant,  and 
the  charge  against  him  was  false.  The  alleged  confessions 
were  stated  to  have  taken  place  after  the  arrest,  and  were 
not  revealed  to  the  magistrate  at  all.  I  also  expressed  the 
view  that  the  so-called  evidence  given  in  the  report  that 
the  boy  had  committed  the  burglary  was  no  evidence,  and 
that  the  alleged  confessions  stated  in  the  report  were 


MAYOR  GAYNOR'S  LETTERS  AND  SPEECHES 

trumped  up  after  the  boy's  discharge,  and  after  I  had 
called  for  a  report,  for  the  purpose  of  trying  to  justify 
the  arrest.  Nothing  further  was  done  at  that  time,  how- 
ever, as  the  said  chief  of  the  detective  bureau  said  that  the 
investigation  was  still  going  on  and  that  it  was  expected 
that  sufficient  evidence  would  be  obtained  against  the  boy. 
But  instead  of  any  evidence  being  obtained  against  him, 
one  Alexander  Moore  has  since  been  arrested,  indicted 
and  convicted  of  the  burglary  and  is  now  serving  a  term 
in  State's  Prison  therefor,  as  I  have  learned.  Pawn  tickets 
for  the  stolen  articles  were  found  in  his  pockets.  The 
stolen  articles  were  all  obtained  in  the  pawn  shop.  The 
diamonds  had  not  been  taken  out  of  the  locket.  In  a 
word,  the  whole  report  has  been  proven  to  be  false  in  every 
substantial  particular.  The  statement  that  this  boy  made 
anything  in  the  nature  of  a  confession  is  now  known  to  be 
entirely  false,  as  he  knew  nothing  at  all  about  the  matter. 
The  report  also  states  that  when  the  boy  was  discharged 
by  the  magistrate  his  mother  who  was  present  exclaimed : 
'  I  am  going  to  write  to  Mayor  Gay  nor  and  give  you  fel- 
lows the  same  dose  that  Duffy  gave  the  officers  in  his 
case  "  —alluding  to  young  Duffy  who  was  arrested  time 
after  time  by  the  police  and  locked  up,  and  his  picture  put 
in  the  Rogues'  Gallery,  for  no  offense  whatever.  I  have 
sufficiently  ascertained  that  she  had  not  up  to  that  time 
ever  heard  of  the  Duffy  case,  and  therefore  could  not  have 
made  such  a  remark.  Also  she  is  not  a  woman  who  would 
express  herself  in  that  manner. 

The  case  calls  for  discipline  of  the  officers  engaged  in 
it.  It  is  also  necessary  that  this  matter  be  made  public 
so  that  this  boy  may  be  fully  vindicated  instead  of  being 
injured  for  life.  It  will  never  do  for  the  police  to  treat 
boys  in  this  way.  I  should  also  mention  that  another 
young  fellow  named  Henry  Grant  was  arrested  on  sus- 
picion for  the  same  crime.  The  chief  reason  for  his  ar- 
rest seems  to  have  been  that  when  a  boy  he  had  served  a 
term  in  the  Elmira  Reformatory.  Pie  was  discharged  as 
reformed.  The  police  should  be  very  careful  about  ar- 

70 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

resting  boys  who  have  served  a  term  in  a  reformatory. 
To  follow  them  up  and  arrest  them  on  sight,  on  the 
slightest  suspicion,  or  on  no  suspicion,  as  is  often  the  case, 
after  they  come  out,  and  even  follow  them  to  the  places 
where  they  are  employed,  and  procure  their  discharge,  is 
to  leave  no  course  open  to  them  except  to  become  habitual 
criminals.  This  boy  Grant  was  employed  as  a  chauffeur. 
I  understand  that  he  lost  his  place  because  of  his  arrest. 
I  trust  that  this  vindication  of  him  will  suffice  to  enable 
him  to  get  other  work  to  do.  The  police  must  be  made  to 
understand  that  they  cannot  arrest  and  lock  people  up  as 
they  like,  but  that  they  must  keep  within  the  law.  The 
only  way  to  enforce  the  law  is  the  way  prescribed  by  law. 
That  which  cannot  be  done  lawfully  must  not  be  done  at 
all  by  the  police  or  any  other  public  officials  from  the  Pres- 
ident of  the  United  States  down.  This  is  a  government 
of  laws  and  not  of  men. 

Rhinelander  Waldo,  Esq., 

Commissioner  of  Police. 

Coffee  Drinking 

December  20,  1911.     • 

Dear  Mr.  Gilmore:  I  thank  you  very  much  for  the 
package  of  coffee  which  you  sent  to  my  house.  It  will 
do  me  much  good.  I  did  not  begin  to  drink  coffee  until  I 
was  past  forty,  and  I  therefore  get  all  the  effects  of  it,  and 
very  little  suffices  me.  Before  I  took  to  drinking  a  little 
diluted  coffee  I  drank  cold  water  for  breakfast,  dinner 
and  supper. 

William  G.  Gilmore,  Esq., 

New  York  City. 

"  Happy  New  Year  " 

December  31,  1911. 

There  is  less  misery  in  this  world  than  some  miserable 
people  think.  Misery  seems  to  be  happiness  to  some  peo- 

71 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

pie.  If  they  happen  to  be  without  some  mental  worry  or 
misery  they  think  they  are  sick.  Every  one  is  happy  in 
some  way.  The  predominant  feeling  in  the  world  is  one 
of  happiness.  We  often  imagine  that  if  this  or  that  hap- 
pened to  us,  or  if  we  met  with  some  accident,  or  were  sick, 
we  would  not  be  happy.  But  the  one  who  has  lost  a  leg 
or  an  arm,  or  even  his  voice,  or  his  hearing,  or  his  eyesight, 
is  generally  happy. 

And  this  is  the  happy  season  of  the  year. 

Nothing  makes  us  so  happy  as  to  read  the  account  in 
Luke's  Gospel  of  the  birth  of  Jesus.  It  thrills  us.  The 
picture  of  the  Child  in  the  manger  with  the  cattle  looking 
on  never  leaves  the  mind  from  childhood  up. 

We  who  were  children  in  the  country  saw  the  cow 
and  the  ox  and  the  manger  and  Jesus  and  all.  We  lived 
with  the  cattle  and  loved  them.  That  Jesus  was  born 
among  them  made  us  feel  that  He  was  really  one  of  us. 
It  is  the  central  point  of  democracy  in  the  world. 

Some  are  fond  of  picturing  infants  born  in  castles 
and  with  great  surroundings.  But  this  picture  of  Jesus 
born  among  the  cattle  in  a  manger  is  the  one  which  reaches 
every  human  heart,  high  and  low.  Humanity  everywhere 
responds  to  it. 

And  in  the  midst  of  this  elation  of  soul  over  the  birth 
of  Jesus  comes  the  beginning  of  the  new  year.  We  are 
looking  on  the  bright  side  of  everything,  and  are  able  to 
begin  the  new  year  well. 

We  are  filled  with  good  intentions  and  are  ready  to 
make  promises  for  our  future  conduct.  But  we  have  to 
keep  renewing  these  promises.  In  fact  we  have  to  renew 
them  every  morning  in  order  to  accomplish  much. 

But  if  we  start  with  a  strong  impulse  we  are  likely  to 
keep  it  up. 

Christmas  and  New  Year's  were  great  days  in  the 
country  when  I  was  a  boy.  The  greeting  was  "  Merry 
Christmas  and  Happy  New  Year  "  everywhere.  It  was 
nothing  but  good  will  to  everybody. 

And  then  later  on  came  Easter.     The  birth  of  Jesus 

72 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

and  the  day  of  His  Resurrection  are  the  happiest  days  in 
the  year.  The  heart  is  filled  with  joy  in  spite  of  one's 
self.  With  many  Easter  is  a  sort  of  renewed  Christmas, 
and  it  was  so  when  I  was  a  boy,  although  there  were  some 
who  thought  very  little  of  either  Christmas  or  Easter. 
Where  I  lived  the  winter  had  hardly  gone  at  Easter. 
But  the  thawing  snow,  the  singing  of  the  hens,  the  cows 
licking  themselves  and  one  another  in  the  barnyard  sun, 
the  sharp  crack  of  the  bursting  trees  in  the  woods,  and 
many  other  signs,  told  us  that  the  winter  was  passing  and 
the  spring  arriving.  Those  were  great  days. 

The  city  children  and  the  city  people  have  great  days 
also.  The  point  of  view  is  different,  that  is  all. 

And  so  you  say  next  year  is  leap  year.  That  tickles 
the  vanity  of  all  young  fellows  and  men  who  think  that 
every  woman  they  meet  is  disposed  to  fall  in  love  with 
them.  But  I  do  not  think  the  women  care  much  about 
leap  year.  They  can  propose  if  they  want  to,  but,  bless 
them,  leap  year  or  no  leap  year,  they  would  rather  have 
the  fellow  propose  to  them. 

No,  I  do  not  approve  of  this  roystering,  and  I  may 
almost  say  drunken  "  old  year  out  and  new  year  in  " 
which  some  people  celebrate  here  in  New  York.  I  would 
like  to  see  it  done  awav  with. 


Pawnshops 

Jan.  4,  1912. 

Sir:  I  enclose  to  you  a  complaint  of  Marie  Behrman. 
Please  have  the  matter  investigated  thoroughly. 

May  I  also  now  repeat  what  I  said  to  you  orally  some 
little  time  ago,  that  the  habit  of  detectives  telling  persons 
whose  property  has  been  stolen  and  pawned,  that  they 
must  pay  the  amount  advanced  on  or  paid  for  the  article 
in  order  to  get  possession  of  it,  should  be  done  away  with. 
The  law  is  that  no  one  is  required  to  pay  anything  in  order 

73 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

to  get  back  his  stolen  property.  Nobody  can  get  any 
title  or  lien  on  it.  The  force  should  be  warned  to  stop 
this  practice  absolutely,  and  a  violation  of  the  rule  should 
merit  dismissal.  The  pawn  brokers  should  not  be  mere 
receivers  of  stolen  goods,  as  some  of  them  now  seem  to 
be,  with  the  aid  and  good  will  of  detectives. 

Rhinelander  Waldo,  Esq., 

Commissioner  of  Police. 

Rogues'  Gallery  Injustice 

January  8,  1912. 

Dear  Mr.  Waltzer :  On  receiving  your  letter  inform- 
ing me  that  your  picture  was  unjustly  in  the  Rogues' 
Gallery,  I  at  once  inquired  into  the  case.  I  found  it  to 
be  just  as  you  state,  namely,  that  you  had  never  been 
arrested  but  once,  and  that  the  charge  of  larceny  made 
against  you  then  by  a  policeman  was  found  to  be  un- 
founded and  you  were  discharged.  Nevertheless  your 
picture  was  put  in  the  Rogues'  Gallery  labelled  "  General 
thief,"  and  it  has  been  there  ever  since.  I  have  had  it 
taken  out  of  the  Rogues'  Gallery  and  I  am  herewith  send- 
ing it  back  to  you.  I  would  also  like  to  do  whatever  else 
I  can  to  make  amends  for  the  very  great  wrong  which  has 
been  done  to  you.  About  the  time  you  were  treated  in 
this  way  a  large  number  of  other  boys  in  this  city  were 
being  treated  in  the  same  way.  But  an  end  has  been  put 
to  that  sort  of  thing,  and  I  trust  forever. 

Mr.  Isidor  Waltzer, 

New  York  City. 

"  The  Single  Tax  " 

Jan.  26,  1912. 

Dear  Mr.  Ellsworth:  The  bill  which  you  call  the 
Sullivan- Short  bill  has  not  been  submitted  to  me.  The 

74 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

purpose  of  it  is  to  throw  all  real  estate  taxes  on  the  bare 
ground,  and  exempt  the  buildings.  This  means  the  carry- 
ing out  of  the  theory  of  the  late  Henry  George,  i.  e.,  to 
have  a  single  tax,  i.  e.,  only  one  tax,  i.  e.,  on  the  bare  land 
only,  all  buildings  and  improvements  to  go  free  of  taxes. 
If  you  will  get  Mr.  George's  book,  "  Progress  and  Pov- 
erty," you  will  find  the  whole  theory  stated.  The  result 
of  such  a  law  would  be  to  practically  confiscate  the  values 
of  all  land  in  cities.  The  effect  would  be  to  absorb  into 
the  public  treasury  by  means  of  taxes  the  entire  ground 
rent,  which  may  be  fairly  stated  at  somewhere  from  four 
to  five  per  cent,  of  the  value  of  the  bare  land.  Of  course 
if  all  ground  rents  should  be  absorbed  into  the  public 
treasury,  there  would  be  no  sale  value  of  land  left.  To 
speak  plainly,  this  would  destroy  or  confiscate  all  such 
land  values.  You  have  to  decide  whether  this  would  be 
just.  Such  a  system  of  taxation  may  be  the  best.  But 
as  society  has  been  constituted  from  the  beginning  under 
a  different  one,  and  people  have  invested  their  money  in 
land  values  under  that  system,  would  it  accord  with  jus- 
tice for  society  to  destroy  their  investments  by  a  new 
system  without  compensating  them  for  their  loss?  The 
subject  is  a  big  one,  politically  and  morally.  But  read 
"  Progress  and  Poverty,"  and  see  what  you  think  about  it. 

T.  Gardner  Ellsworth,  Esq.,  Sec'y, 

Farmers'  and  Taxpayers'  Assn. 


Pawnbrokers 

February  7,  1912. 

Sir :  The  practice  had  grown  up  in  the  police  depart- 
ment of  detectives  telling  persons  whose  stolen  property 
was  found  in  pawn  shops  to  pay  the  amount  loaned  on 
the  property  in  order  to  regain  possession  of  their  goods. 
They  were  told  that  they  had  to  pay  the  said  amount  in 
order  to  get  their  goods.  This  was  all  illegal.  A  person 

75 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

whose  property  is  stolen  can  follow  it  anywhere  and  take 
it,  and  is  entitled  to  take  it  by  law.  No  one  can  get  any 
property  in  or  lien  on  stolen  goods  as  against  the  true 
owner.  An  order  was  therefore  issued  prohibiting  mem- 
bers of  the  force  from  advising  or  telling  owners  of  stolen 
property  to  pay  the  pawnbrokers  in  order  to  regain  their 
property.  The  result  has  been  that  many  pawnbrokers 
are  refusing  to  deliver  up  stolen  property  without  being 
paid.  I  call  your  special  attention  to  Manning  Brothers 
who  keep  a  pawn  shop  at  584,  Eighth  avenue,  who  refuse 
to  deliver  up  the  jewelry  stolen  from  Mr.  Suydam. 

I  am  now  instructing  the  Police  Commissioner  to  send 
to  you  the  name  of  every  pawnbroker  in  the  city  who 
refuses  to  deliver  up  stolen  goods  without  being  paid  the 
amount  of  his  loan  by  the  owner  thereof,  and  you  will 
please  institute  proceedings  against  them  for  the  revoca- 
tion of  their  licenses  if  they  persist  in  this  course. 

James  G.  Wallace,  Jr.,  Esq., 

Chief  of  Bureau  of  Licenses. 


Police  Control  of  Excise,   Gambling  and  Prostitution 

February  10,  1912. 

Dear  Sir :  Since  you  called  on  me  with  the  other  mem- 
bers of  your  committee  on  the  police  which  was  appointed 
at  the  mass  meeting,  I  have  continued  to  consider  the  mat- 
ter of  taking  away  from  the  police  department  the  en- 
forcement of  the  law  with  regard  to  excise,  gambling  and 
prostitution,  and  conferring  that  power  and  duty  upon  a 
new  department  to  be  created  by  the  Legislature.  After 
your  call  I  requested  Assemblyman  Greenberg  not  to  in- 
troduce the  bill  he  prepared  for  that  purpose  (and  which 
I  handed  to  you),  until  your  committee  had  fully  con- 
sidered it.  If  such  a  bill  is  to  be  introduced,  I  should  prefer 
that  it  be  under  the  auspices  of  your  committee. 

It  is  easy  for  the  police  to  extort  money  from  the 
keepers  of  hotels,  saloons,  gambling  houses  and  houses 

76 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

of  prostitution,  under  threats  of  entering  their  places  and 
arresting  and  prosecuting  them  unless  they  pay  for  im- 
munity therefrom.  Arid  such  persons  are  certain  to  seek  to 
bribe  the  police.  I  found  that  condition  in  full  blast  when 
I  came  in  as  Mayor.  It  had  existed  for  many  years.  The 
hotels,  saloons,  gambling  houses  and  houses  of  fornica- 
tion were  paying  a  weekly  or  monthly  sum  for  such  im- 
munity. The  total  sum  was  immense.  I  knew  that  the 
recipients  would  not  let  go  of  this  graft  at  my  mere  bid- 
ding. I  have  been  struggling  persistently  ever  since  to 
remove  this  condition.  I  think  I  have  succeeded  with  re- 
gard to  the  saloon  and  hotel  graft.  I  know  that  I  have 
measurably  succeeded  in  respect  to  gambling  houses  and 
houses  of  fornication.  But  to  remove  the  evil  entirely  re- 
quires time,  for  it  is  of  long  standing  and  deep  seated. 

Police  Commissioners  Cropsey  and  Waldo  have  put 
many  gamblers  and  keepers  of  houses  of  fornication  out 
of  business.  The  result  has  been  to  provoke  some  of  them 
to  reveal  facts  with  regard  to  the  bribery  of  the  police. 
It  seems  to  be  lost  sight  of  to  some  extent  that  all  of  these 
revelations  of  police  bribery  came  from  this  enforcement 
of  the  law  against  the  persons  who  made  such  revelations. 
It  was  to  be  expected  that  enforcement  of  the  law  would 
bring  about  such  revelations.  Rosenthal,  for  instance, 
opened  twelve  different  gambling  places  successively  after 
Waldo  was  made  Commissioner,  but  was  put  out  of  busi- 
ness every  time.  While  the  police  were  still  in  possession 
of  the  last  place  which  he  opened  he  made  revelations 
against  the  police.  The  same  thing  occurred  in  the  case 
of  Sipp,  whose  house  of  fornication  was  suppressed  by 
the  police.  And  the  same  is  occurring  with  others.  But 
most  of  the  revelations  which  are  being  made  are  of  things 
which  occurred  under  former  administrations  of  the  city 
government,  some  of  them  as  long  as  fifteen  years  ago. 
The  effort  of  certain  newspapers  to  make  it  appear  that 
these  revelations  are  of  occurrences  which  took  place  since 
Waldo  became  Police  Commissioner  will  not,  I  am  cer- 
tain, deceive  any  intelligent  person.  The  ignorant  may  be 

77 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

deceived  for  a  time,  but  not  the  intelligent.  Meanwhile,  a 
considerable  number  of  corrupt  officials  in  the  police  de- 
partment have  been  removed  or  compelled  to  resign.  If 
we  could  get  the  old  time  grafters  out,  we  would  at  the 
same  time  get  rid  of  most  of  the  graft.  But  it  takes  time 
and  patience.  They  cannot  be  dismissed  without  strict 
legal  evidence.  This  grafting  in  the  cities  in  this  country 
is  of  long  standing,  deep  seated  and  inveterate. 

But  justice  requires  us  to  always  remember  that  only 
a  comparatively  few  of  the  members  of  the  police  force  are 
thus  corrupted  and  infected.  There  are  not  as  many  as 
100  out  of  the  whole  force  of  10,000.  The  great  body  of 
the  force  throughout  the  city,  in  Brooklyn,  in  Queens,  in 
the  Bronx,  in  Richmond,  and  in  most  of  Manhattan,  is 
doing  its  duty  faithfully  day  after  day.  It  is  only  in  two 
or  three  localities  in  Manhattan  that  this  graft  evil  exists. 
But  the  corrupt  doings  of  the  few  corrupted  policemen  in 
these  localities  give  the  whole  force  a  bad  name,  at  all 
events  in  the  minds  of  unthinking  people.  The  result  is 
an  unfavorable  effect  on  the  whole  force,  more  or  less.  It 
distracts  it  from  its  duty.  And  the  indiscriminate  abuse 
heaped  on  the  whole  force  by  corrupt  and  sensational  news- 
papers for  the  derelictions  of  a  few  must  of  course  have 
a  bad  effect  also. 

It  therefore  seems  that  it  would  be  a  wise  thing  to  take 
away  from  the  police  force  all  supervision  over  or  contact 
with  the  three  things  I  have  mentioned  and  confer  the  same 
on  a  separate  force  to  be  created  for  that  purpose.  Of 
course  that  new  force  would  also  be  subject  to  the  same 
temptation,  and  would  be  corrupted  more  or  less.  But 
their  misdeeds  would  not  reflect  on  the  police  force.  The 
police  force  would  be  engaged  solely  in  preserving  the 
peace,  and  keeping  outward  order  and  decency,  and  in  the 
detection  and  prevention  of  ordinary  crimes,  in  the  which 
opportunities  for  graft  are  small.  It  would  have  nothing  to 
do  with  the  enforcement  of  the  laws  concerning  excise, 
gambling  and  prostitution,  and  would  not  be  subject  to  the 
infection  of  corruption  therefrom. 

78 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

As  I  have  said,  this  new  force  would  be  open  to  such 
corruption.  But  the  danger  thereof  would  be  minimized 
if  the  commissioner  of  the  new  force  were  given  the  power 
to  appoint  and  dismiss  at  will.  That  would  enable  him  to 
select  competent  persons  and  to  get  rid  of  every  member 
of  the  force  of  whom  he  had  any  suspicion.  As  it  is  now 
no  member  of  the  police  force  can  be  dismissed  except  on 
common  law  proof  showing  him  to  be  guilty  of  some  dere- 
liction. If  the  same  rule  should  be  made  applicable  to  the 
new  force,  then  I  do  not  see  that  anything  would  be  gained 
by  creating  such  a  force. 

After  careful  consideration  I  favor  creating  this  new 
force.  But  I  am  not  in  favor  of  putting  it  under  a  board 
of  commissioners  to  serve  without  pay.  On  the  contrary, 
to  be  effective  it  ought  to  be  under  a  paid  commissioner 
who  would  have  to  devote  all  of  his  time  to  his  duties.  I 
have  no  doubt  that  better  results  in  government  are  ob- 
tained from  paid  officials  than  from  voluntary  officials. 

I  have  all  the  more  reason  to  be  in  favor  of  this  new 
method  for  the  reason  that  I  have  adopted  a  similar  method 
in  the  police  force  itself,  and  it  has  worked  well.  As  you 
know  I  made  up  a  separate  force  within  the  force  itself  to 
deal  with  the  three  things  which  I  have  mentioned,  and  re- 
lieved the  rest  of  the  force  from  dealing  with  such  things. 
To  leave  all  of  the  captains  and  inspectors  free  to  deal  with 
liquor  saloons,  gambling  houses  and  houses  of  fornication 
is  only  to  make  extensive  corruption  certain.  I  tried  to 
bring  the  contact  with  these  three  things  down  to  one 
point,  namely,  to  the  commissioner  himself.  To  do  that  I 
created  a  separate  force  which  was  placed  under  the  imme- 
diate orders  of  the  commissioner.  As  you  are  aware,  one 
of  the  three  lieutenants  put  over  that  force  by  the  Com- 
missioner was  corrupted.  But  the  extent  of  corruption 
was  reduced  many  fold,  and  I  have  no  hesitation  in  saying 
that  it  was  never  less  in  the  police  department  for  a  genera- 
tion than  during  the  last  two  years.  But  although  that 
method  has  measurably  succeeded  I  think  a  new  force, 
wholly  disconnected  from  the  police  force,  would  work  out 

79 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

a  still  better  result.  And  above  all  things  as  I  have  al- 
ready stated,  whatever  corruption  there  might  be  in  that 
force  would  not  reflect  upon  the  police  force. 

I  have  a  letter  to-day  from  Assemblyman  Greenberg 
who  is  restless  about  introducing  his  bill.  I  shall  send 
him  a  copy  of  this  letter,  and  it  may  be  that  he  will  wait 
until  you  have  carefully  revised  his  bill  or  drawn  a  new  one. 
Or  it  may  be  wise  for  him  to  introduce  his  bill  and  have  it 
printed  so  that  it  may  be  circulated.  In  that  way  we  would 
get  the  co-operation  of  many  others.  I  shall  be  glad  to 
confer  with  your  committee  further  about  this  matter, 
and  to  have  a  session  with  you  in  the  near  future. 

Allan   Robinson,   Esq., 

New  York  City. 


Cats  March  8,  1912. 

Dear  Mr.  Gerdes:  I  regret  to  say  that  I  have  so 
many  official  duties  pressing  upon  me  that  I  cannot  just 
now  devote  any  time  to  the  tom-cats,  as  you  request  by 
your  letter.  There  are  a  few  in  my  neighborhood,  but  I 
go  to  sleep  and  let  them  howl.  It  amuses  them  and  doesn't 
hurt  me.  But  some  say  that  it  is  the  pussy-cats  that  howl, 
and  not  the  tom-cats.  How  is  that?  We  must  not  kill 
Tommy  for  the  sins  of  Pussy.  And,  also,  let  us  remem- 
ber that  the  "  female  of  the  species  is  more  deadly  than 
the  male." 

Theodore  R.  N.  Gerdes,  Esq., 

New  York  City. 


A  Touch  of  Philosophy 

April  18,  1912. 

My  dear  Doctor  Finley:     I  am  returning  to  you  the 
fine  edition  of  "  Marcus  Aurelius  "  which  you  loaned  me. 

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MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

The  beautiful  type  and  mechanical  work  added  to  the  joy 
of  again  reading  the  philosophical  reflections  of  that  great 
ruler.  He  wrote  them  011  his  tablets  for  the  mere  joy  of 
the  thing.  He  does  not  seem  to  have  desired  to  communi- 
cate them  to  posterity.  But  we  must  not  rate  them  too 
high.  To  say  that  in  their  conception  and  morality  they 
equal  or  approach  the  philosophy  of  Jesus,  as  do  John 
Stuart  Mill  and  others,  seems  to  me  a  great  exaggeration. 
Nor  do  they  approach  the  philosophy  and  sublimity  of 
the  Old  Testament  in  its  conception  of  a  universe  subject 
to  the  fixed  laws  of  one  God-head.  The  re-reading  of  them 
has  again  produced  in  me  the  same  state  of  mind  with 
which  I  have  always  laid  them  down  heretofore,  namely: 
Consider  that  the  great  universe  of  which  thou  art  only 
a  trivial  speck,  is  governed  by  fixed  laws,  and  be  there- 
fore content  in  all  things,  and  especially  to  die  at  any  time, 
and  abide  God's  will  of  thee,  whether  of  individual  future 
life,  or  dissolution  into  universal  mind  and  matter. 

My  mind  is  all  the  more  impressed  with  this  now,  for 
I  have  spent  much  of  this  day  considering  the  death  of 
those  who  went  down  on  the  steamship  "  Titanic,"  and 
preparing  to  take  care  of  the  survivors  of  that  awful 
catastrophe  on  their  arrival  here  tonight. 

Dr.  John  H.  Finley,  President, 

College  of  the  City  of  New  York. 


Purchasing  Carrots  and  Cabbages  by  the  Department 

of  Charities 

May  6,  1912. 

Dear  Mr.  Fee:  Your  letter  with  regard  to  the  rejec- 
tion of  your  vegetables  is  at  hand.  I  must  say  I  deem  the 
condition  that  the  carrots  be  of  one  size  as  whimsical. 
What  difference  does  it  make  whether  they  are  of  uniform 
size  or  not?  They  may  look  nicer,  but  will  taste  no  better 
either  to  men  or  horses.  You  would  have  to  have  a  good 
many  acres  of  them  to  cull  out  any  considerable  number 

81 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

of  the  same  size.  But  maybe  they  think  there  is  some  way 
of  growing  carrots  all  of  the  same  size.  And  the  condi- 
tion that  your  new  cabbages  be  white  in  the  head  is  another 
extraordinary  notion.  New  cabbages  are  rather  green. 
Late  cabbages  get  white  in  the  head  after  a  while.  I  fear 
those  who  are  rejecting  your  vegetables  never  raised  either 
cabbages  or  carrots  or  anything  else.  Try  them  again, 
and  see  what  they  say?  How  would  it  do  if  we  send  them 
all  out  on  a  farm  for  a  year  or  so  that  they  may  learn  at 
least  the  difference  between  their  knee  and  their  elbow 
about  vegetables. 

James  T.  Fee,  Esq.,   Manager, 

Contract  Department, 

New  York. 


Police  and  Boys  Playing  Ball 

May  15,  1912. 

Dear  Master  Van  Buren :  Your  letter  complaining  of 
the  police  chasing  you  and  your  companions  out  of  the  lot 
where  you  play  ball  is  at  hand.  I  will  take  charge  of  the 
matter  and  see  what  we  can  do.  Most  of  the  police  be- 
have with  intelligence,  but  I  am  sorry  to  say  there  are  a 
few  stupid  ones  on  the  force  yet  that  we  would  like  to  get 
rid  of.  A  policeman  ought  to  be  the  friend  of  the  boys 
on  his  beat.  I  am  very  desirous  of  having  the  police  let 
the  boys  play  on  every  available  lot  or  space  in  the  city. 
In  this  case  you  have  the  permission  of  the  owners,  and  I 
do  not  see  why  the  police  meddle  with  you,  except  to  see 
that  your  ball  does  not  fly  over  the  fence  and  hit  someone. 
You  boys  have  to  play  somewhere.  The  people  who  think 
you  ought  to  stay  in  the  house  all  the  time  are  also  very 
stupid  or  else  very  ill-natured. 

Master  Charles  Van  Buren, 

Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 

32 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

Roost  Higher  Up 

May  23,  1912. 

Dear  Mr.  O'Gilby:  I  sympathize  with  you  in  the  loss 
of  your  chickens.  My  hen  roost  on  Long  Island  has  also 
been  entered.  You  say  there  are  sixty-five  policemen  in 
your  precinct  and  demand  more.  Down  my  way  there  are 
only  four  constables  in  a  territory  about  ten  times  as  large 
as  yours,  with  a  population  not  much  less.  It  is  pretty 
hard  to  keep  chicken  thieves  out  of  chicken  roosts  by 
policemen.  However,  I  shall  .see  what  can  be  done  for 
you  and  your  neighbors.  Can  you  not  induce  your 
chickens  to  roost  higher? 

William  S.  R.  O'Gilby,  Esq., 

West  New  Brighton,  S.  I. 


To  a  Man  Arrested  for  Spitting 

May  27,  1912. 

Dear  Sir:  I  shall  look  into  your  case,  but  I  never 
could  understand  why  boys  and  men  will  go  around  spit- 
ting. It  is  disgusting.  Why  should  boys  and  men  spit 
any  more  than  girls  and  women?  Did  you  ever  think  of 
that?  What  is  the  use  of  being  so  nasty? 

Mr.  Felix  R.  Solomons, 

Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 


Newspapers 

June  10,  1912. 

The  National  Publicity  Bureau :  You  ask  me  to  give 
an  interview  saying  "  What  I  would  say  to  the  readers  of 
3,000  newspapers."  I  would  say  to  them  to  be  very  care- 
ful about  believing  all  they  see  in  the  newspapers. 

C.  E.  Baird,  Esq., 

Scranton,  Penna. 

83 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

Sunday  Games 

June  11,  1912. 

Dear  Dr.  Bailey:  Your  letter  communicating  to  me 
the  resolution  passed  by  the  Prospect  Heights  Presby- 
terian Church  with  regard  to  playing  games  in  the  parks 
on  Sunday  is  at  hand.  A  great  majority  of  the  people  of 
the  city,  and  I  think  of  the  clergymen  of  the  city,  would 
be  opposed  to  stopping  them.  I  was  myself  brought  up 
to  the  observance  of  a  still  Sabbath.  But  as  we  had  to 
work  hard  in  the  fields  and  woods  on  week  days  we  were 
willing  to  keep  still  on  Sunday.  Of  course  you  know  that 
is  not  the  case  with  our  city  men  and  boys.  Many  of  them 
have  no  day  of  recreation  except  Sunday.  What  would 
you  do  with  them?  If  they  do  not  play  in  the  fields  they 
will  go  somewhere  else,  as  you  know.  Where  would  you 
have  them  go?  No  doubt  your  church  has  solved  that 
problem,  and  I  should  be  very  glad  to  have  you  let  me 
know  how  it  has  been  solved.  Some  of  our  clergymen 
who  have  not  been  able  to  solve  it  are  offering  to  go  into 
the  fields  and  play  with  the  boys  of  their  congregation  on 
Sunday  afternoons.  They  dread  to  have  the  boys  driven 
to  the  saloons,  or  to  worse  places.  The  conditions  in  cities 
and  in  the  country  with  regard  to  Sunday  are  very  dif- 
ferent. Please  remember  also  that  people  have  a  right 
to  indulge  in  any  game  or  recreation  on  Sunday  which  is 
not  prohibited  by  law. 

Rev.  Edwin  D.  Bailey, 

Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 

On  the  Still  Sabbath 

June  21,  1912. 

Dear  Colonel  Bacon:  I  have  your  letter  enclosing 
the  letter  of  Mr.  Steele.  If  I  could  lawfully  stop  games 
on  Sunday  and  should  do  so  in  one  place  I  would  have 
to  stop  them  everywhere.  I  have  to  do  the  best  I  can. 

84 


MAYOR    GAYXOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

When  I  was  a  boy  we  kept  still  on  Sunday,  but  we  worked 
in  the  fields  and  in  the  woods  every  other  day  in  the  week, 
and  it  was  not  a  difficult  matter  to  keep  still  on  Sunday. 
But  the  case  of  our  boys  and  young  men  here  in  the  city 
is  very  different.  They  are  cooped  up  in  factories  and 
workshops  and  offices  the  whole  week,  and  as  a  health 
measure,  to  say  nothing  else,  it  may  be  necessary  that  they 
get  out  in  the  fields  and  play  games  on  Sunday.  There 
is  no  human  law  forbidding  it,  and  the  vast  majority  of 
people  are  of  opinion  that  there  is  no  divine  law  forbid- 
ding it.  One  of  the  Ten  Commandments  forbids  work, 
but  not  play,  as  has  often  been  pointed  out.  And  as  Mr. 
Steele  says  in  his  letter  to  you,  Jesus  departed  from  the 
still  observance  of  the  Sabbath,  and  when  called  to  account 
for  it  said:  '  The  Sabbath  was  made  for  man,  and  not 
man  for  the  Sabbath."  Nowhere  in  the  world  has  there 
ever  been  an  idea  of  a  still  Sabbath  except  among  the 
ancient  Jews  and  in  the  British  Isles.  Sometimes  I  think 
this  is  some  proof  that  the  lost  tribes  of  Israel  found  their 
way  up  into  the  British  Isles  and  settled  there.  But  never 
on  the  continent  of  Europe  was  it  deemed  wrongful  or 
sinful  to  take  physical  exercises  and  play  outdoor  games 
on  Sunday.  People  there  have  always,  from  the  remotest 
times,  resorted  to  the  fields  for  physical  exercises  and 
games  on  Sunday,  especially  after  church.  When  John 
Knox  went  to  visit  John  Calvin  at  Geneva  on  a  Sunday 
afternoon  he  found  him  out  in  the  fields  playing  at  bowls 
with  his  two  sons  and  his  neighbors.  Moreover,  the  Chris- 
tian Church  never  from  the  beginning  prescribed  any  rules 
for  the  observance  of  Sunday  in  respect  of  physical  exer- 
cises or  games  or  play.  Not  many  years  ago,  as  you 
doubtless  well  remember,  some  one  wrote  to  the  Arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury  complaining  of  Mr.  Balfour,  then 
Prime  Minister,  for  playing  golf  on  Sunday.  The  Arch- 
bishop responded  in  writing  that:  "  It  is  certain  that  the 
Christian  Church  has  never  laid  down  detailed  directions 
affecting  the  actions  of  individuals  in  this  matter.  Each 
is  responsible  to  God  for  using  the  L,ord's  Day  so  as  to 

85 


MAYOR    GAYNQITS    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

fit  him  best  for  the  working  days  that  follow."  And  as 
for  the  civil  law,  I  know  of  no  statute  forbidding  exercises 
or  games  on  Sunday  generally.  There  are  certain  things 
forbidden.  Beyond  that  the  law  leaves  everyone  to  deter- 
mine according  to  his  own  conscience  how  he  shall  spend 
the  Sunday.  But  I  shall  not  pursue  the  subject.  You 
and  I  would  like  to  see  everybody  go  to  church  Sunday 
forenoon,  before  going  to  the  fields  in  the  afternoon  for 
exercises,  if  they  decide  to  go.  As  it  is,  the  majority  of 
clergymen,  I  think,  as  well  as  of  people  in  general,  are 
against  stopping  Sunday  exercises  and  games  in  the  open 
fields.  The  last  thing  we  should  try  to  do  in  this  world 
is  to  force  our  religious  opinions  or  prejudices  on  others. 
I  suppose  you  saw  the  uncharitable,  and  even  mean  letter, 
written  to  me  by  the  Reverend  Bailey.  It  is  no  wonder 
his  church  is  nearly  empty  Sunday  after  Sunday. 

Col.  Alexander  S.  Bacon, 

New  York  City. 


Belief  in  God 

June  17,  1912. 

Dear  Mr.  Guiteau :  I  thank  you  very  much  for  send- 
ing me  your  religious  poem.  I  say  religious,  because  it 
breathes  the  very  spirit  of  religion.  And  yet  with  those 
who  find  themselves  only  able  to  believe  in  God,  without 
believing  other  things,  there  should  be  no  quarrel.  Every 
one  can  say  that  he  believes  in  God,  and  in  His  benign 
rulership  of  the  universe  by  fixed  laws.  If  some  of  us  find 
it  difficult  to  believe  anything  further,  I  am  certain  God 
does  not  condemn  us.  Why  then  should  anyone  else? 
Some  people  say  they  do  not  believe  in  God,  even.  I  do 
not  believe  them.  No  one  can  sincerely  say  that. 

John  Wilson  Guiteau,  Esq., 

Dobbs  Ferry,  N.  Y. 

86 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

Democracy   and   Despotism 

(To  the  school  children  of  the  City  of  New  York,  written  at 
the  request  of  the  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction,  to  be  read 
to  them  on  Independence  Day,  1912.) 

June  29, 1912. 

Our  country  is  a  free  country.  Our  government  is  a 
democracy.  Democracy  is  the  rule  of  the  people  by  them- 
selves. The  way  this  is  done  is  as  follows:  The  people 
enact  their  own  laws.  These  laws  prescribe  how  they  shall 
be  governed.  Then  the  people  elect  their  own  officials  to 
carry  out  or  execute  these  laws.  If  the  number  of  the 
whole  people  were  small  enough,  they  could  meet  in  one 
place,  in  a  big  hall  or  in  a  field,  and  enact  their  laws  by 
their  own  voice.  But  as  our  numbers  are  too  great  for 
that,  we  divide  ourselves  up  into  sections  or  districts,  and 
each  district  elects  representatives,  and  all  of  these  repre- 
sentatives meet  in  what  we  call  the  Legislature,  and  enact 
our  laws.  That  is  a  representative  democracy.  If  our 
laws  do  not  suit  us  it  is  because  we  do  not  elect  persons 
who  carry  out  our  will  in  the  Legislature.  That  is  our 
own  fault,  namely,  through  ignorance  or  negligence  we 
elect  unfit  men.  And  if  we  elect  unfit  men  to  office  to  carry 
out  or  execute  our  laws,  that  is  in  the  same  way  our  own 
fault.  The  only  way,  therefore,  to  have  good  laws,  and 
good  officials  to  execute  them,  is  by  the  intelligence  and 
virtue  of  the  people.  We  therefore  spend  immense  sums 
to  educate  the  people.  The  object  is  to  make  them  fit  to 
vote.  If  the  people  are  themselves  intelligent  and  vir- 
tuous, they  will  vote  right,  and  the  result  will  be  good 
laws,  good  officials,  and  good  government.  But  if  the 
people  are  not  intelligent  and  virtuous,  the  result  will  be 
the  reverse,  namely,  bad  laws,  bad  officials,  and  bad  gov- 
ernment. Now  you  see  why  your  parents  are  paying  large 
taxes  to  educate  you.  If  you  and  the  generations  who 
come  after  you  should  lack  the  necessary  intelligence  and 
virtue,  then  our  form  of  government  must  come  to  its 
downfall.  I  hope  our  common  schools  will  postpone  in- 

87 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

definitely  that  fatal  hour.  The  downfall  of  the  rulership 
of  the  people  by  themselves. means  a  return  to  despotism. 
Under  that  form  of  government  which  we  call  despotism, 
the  ruler  does  as  he  likes  without  regard  to  the  people. 
He  arrests  them,  he  locks  them  up,  he  takes  their  lives,  he 
takes  their  property,  to  suit  himself.  We  must  therefore 
be  vigilant  of  every  little  approach  of  despotism,  however 
little  it  may  be.  We  must  see  to  it  that  those  whom  we 
elect  to  office  do  not  go  outside  of  the  laws,  or  set  them- 
selves up  above  the  laws,  and  do  as  they  please.  It  always 
has  been  the  case  throughout  the  world  that  the  officials 
who  did  this  did  it  on  the  plea  that  the  laws  were  not  good 
enough — that  they  could  do  better  than  the  laws  pre- 
scribed. Beware  of  all  such  officials.  We  do  not  want 
officials  who  have  any  lust  of  power.  We  want  officials 
who  are  very  careful  about  exercising  power.  We  want 
officials  who  are  careful  to  exercise  no  power  except  that 
given  to  them  by  the  people  by  their  laws.  There  is  no 
more  dangerous  man  in  a  free  country,  in  a  democracy, 
than  an  official  who  thinks  he  is  better  than  the  laws.  The 
good  man  in  office  should  be  most  careful  not  to  set  a  bad 
example  or  precedent  for  his  bad  successor,  who  will  come 
along  sooner  or  later. 

On  every  recurring  Independence  Day  we  should  seri- 
ously consider  these  things,  and  consecrate  ourselves  anew, 
even  upon  our  knees,  to  God's  will,  in  the  full  conviction 
that  His  will  is  that  the  people  shall  by  their  ever  growing 
intelligence  and  virtue  continue  to  rule  themselves,  better 
and  better,  year  after  year,  forever. 


Happiness 

July  8,  1912. 

Dear  Madam:  You  are  looking  for  happiness  in  the 
wrong  direction.  I  do  not  think  there  is  any  man  living 
who  would  suit  you.  If  you  want  to  be  really  happy  for 

ss 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

the  rest  of  your  life,  work  for  the  happiness  of  others,  and 
forget  yourself. 

Mrs.  Clara  L.  Brown, 

Chicago,  111. 


Workmen's  Compensation  and  Pension  Laws 

July  23,  1912. 

Dear  Mr.  Archer:  I  am  much  indebted  to  you  for 
sending  me  the  workmen's  compensation  act  passed  in 
Ohio  this  year.  The  provisions  in  it  requiring  the  creation 
of  a  state  insurance  fund,  by  means  of  a  tax  on  employers 
and  employes  based  on  the  aggregate  wages  paid  by  each 
manufactory  or  establishment,  to  pay  for  injuries  and 
deaths  of  employes  by  accidents  in  their  work,  create  an 
admirable  sj^stem.  Nearly  all  the  governments  of  the 
world  outside  of  this  country  have  some  similar  law  for 
the  benefit  of  employes.  It  is  an  old  thing  in  Europe. 
Every  European  nation  has  such  a  law  except  Turkey 
and  some  states  of  Switzerland,  and  throughout  the  world 
we  find  similar  laws  as  a  rule.  Prussia  had  one  as  early 
as  1847,  I  think.  In  this  country  we  lag  behind  the  world 
in  this  just  and  humane  matter.  I  doubt  if  any  govern- 
ment has  a  better  law  on  the  subject  than  this  newest  one 
of  all  which  you  have  in  Ohio.  But  will  the  courts  knock 
it  over,  as  the  highest  court  in  this  state  did  with  the  verjr 
moderate  one  we  passed  in  this  state  as  a  beginning  three 
years  ago?  People  are  beginning  to  see  that  social  and 
economic  justice  requires  that  we  have  these  laws.  The 
industrial  workers  should  be  paid  for  the  injuries  which 
they  receive  in  their  work,  and  the  dependents  of  those 
killed  should  be  likewise  paid.  It  is  easy  to  accumulate 
a  fund  for  this  purpose  by  a  light  tax  on  employers  and 
employes.  In  England  the  employers  are  taxed  for  a 
part,  the  employes  for  a  part,  and  general  taxation  makes 
up  the  remainder  of  the  fund.  Russia  has  a  model  law  on 
the  subject.  I  think  the  recent  English  one  is  modelled 

89 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

on  the  Russian  one,  but  you  are  more  competent  on  that 
head  than  1  am. 

1  suppose  you  know  that  here  in  this  city  we  are  em- 
powered in  our  discretion  to  retire  on  an.  old  age  pension 
all  old  persons  who  have  been  in  the  city  employment  for 
thirty  years.  We  also  have  old  age  pension  laws  for  sev- 
eral of  our  Departments.  For  example,  our  street  cleaners 
have  a  pension  fund  out  of  which  they  are  paid  a  perma- 
nent yearly  sum  after  they  are  retired  from  the  employ- 
ment of  the  city  on  account  of  old  age  or  physical  or 
mental  disability.  And  we  are  soon  to  have  such  a  law 
for  all  of  our  city  employes.  Why  should  not  the  same 
rule  apply  to  all  industrial  workers  as  well  as  to  those  who 
work  for  the  city  of  New  York  or  other  cities?  I  hope 
the  time  is  fast  approaching  when  that  will  be  so.  It  has 
been  voluntarily  established  by  some  railroads  and  large 
industrial  establishments.  Those  of  us  who  ventured  to 
say  a  word  in  favor  of  such  things  a  few  years  ago  were 
denounced  as  socialists  and  anarchists,  used  as  words  of 
opprobrium,  especially  by  newspapers  and  people  who  do 
not  know  what  socialism  is.  Let  them  call  it  anything 
they  like.  Distributive  justice  requires  that  it  shall  come 
to  pass.  The  old  workers  should  not  be  turned  out  to  die 
or  live  in  distress  or  go  to  the  poorhouse,  nor  should  the 
maimed  or  hurt. 

It  is  very  gratifying  to  learn  from  you  that  the  Manu- 
facturers' Association  of  the  United  States  have  passed  a 
resolution  favoring  the  passage  of  such  laws.  Such  a  sys- 
tem cannot  hurt  them.  It  would  relieve  them  of  all  law- 
suits for  accidents,  and  of  the  large  payments  they  are 
now  making  to  casualty  companies,  to  insure  them  against 
such  accidents.  Would  the  tax  on  them  for  such  a  system 
be  larger  than  the  premiums  they  are  now  paying  the 
casualty  companies?  More  than  that,  the  tax  would  not 
really  fall  on  them.  It  would  go  into  the  cost  of  produc- 
tion, the  same  as  the  insurance  premiums  they  are  now 
paying,  and  be  paid  in  the  end  by  the  whole  community 
in  the  price  they  would  pay  for  the  articles  produced.  And 

90 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

the  tax  would  increase  that  price  by  so  small  a  decimal 
that  it  would  be  scarcely  noticeable,  if  at  all. 

I  notice  that  both  political  parties  kept  aloof  from 
this  matter  in  their  platforms  this  year.  But  all  the  same 
it  is  one  uppermost  in  the  minds  of  the  people  of  this 
country  today,  and  they  will  attend  to  it.  They  do  not 
propose  to  lag  behind  the  whole  world  in  distributive  jus- 
tice. General  prosperity  does  not  depend  alone  on  the 
amount  of  the  total  product  of  industry,  but  more  yet  on 
a  just  division  of  such  product  among  all  who  helped  to 
produce  it,  whether  by  physical  work  or  mental  work,  or 
both,  or  by  furnishing  capital. 

William  C.  Archer,  Esq., 

Columbus,  Ohio. 

Rhetoricians 

August  1st,  1912. 

Dear  Mr.  Greenspan :  I  thank  you  very  much  for  your 
letter.  You  understand  the  matter  correctly.  I  have 
not  said  so  much  as  one  word  about  the  Jews  in  connec- 
tion with  the  Rosenthal  murder.  I  have  not  used  the 
word  at  all.  In  my  letter  I  said  that  those  whose  names 
have  been  published  in  connection  with  the  gambling 
murder,  and  with  gambling,  showed  them  to  be  "  degen- 
erate foreigners  "  who  gave  the  police  great  trouble.  And 
if  you  look  at  the  list  of  these  names  you  will  find  that 
they  are  not  all  Jews,  although  it  contains  several  or  many 
Jews.  But  if  the  list  were  all  Jews,  I  am  sufficiently  ac- 
quainted with  the  Jewish  intellect  and  character  to  know 
that  the  Jews  do  not  shield  criminals  of  their  race  any 
more  than  any  other  criminals.  They  rate  all  criminals 
alike.  I  cannot  help  Rabbi  Wise.  He  is  supposed  to  be 
a  preacher  and  a  charitable  man.  That  he  has  borne  false 
witness  against  me  concerneth  him  more  than  it  concerneth 
me.  He  seems  to  read  the  Hearst  newspapers,  and  accept 
their  statements  as  true.  What  a  howling  wilderness  the 
mind  of  such  a  man  must  be.  And  yet  he  professes  to  be 

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MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

a  teacher  and  is  even  a  noisy  censor.  I  have  no  use  for 
these  inflammatory  rhetoricians.  They  are  all  voice  and 
no  conscience  or  heart.  We  all  have  to  do  the  best  we  can, 
and  should  of  all  things  stand  by  the  truth  and  by  our 
training  and  convictions.  A  degenerate  outlaw  is  the 
same  to  me,  Jew  or  Gentile.  I  wish  we  could  be  rid  of  all 
such. 

B.  E.  Greenspan,  Esq., 

New  York  City. 


He  of  the  Crooked  Mouth 

August  7,  1912. 

Dear  Mr.  Rosenfeld:  1  thank  you  very  much  for 
your  letter.  Rabbi  Wise  does  not  disturb  me.  I  am  con- 
tent that  he  and  his  like  bear  false  witness  against  me,  as 
they  have  been  doing  for  25  years.  The  better  I  have 
done  or  tried  to  do  the  more  they  have  lied  about  me  and 
abused  me.  That  is  their  impulse.  Rabbi  Wise  has  long- 
been  an  exaggerator  and  uncharitable  man  in  this  com- 
munity. He  is  all  mouth  and  no  conscience.  The  mouths 
of  rhetoricians  are  proverbially  crooked.  "  He  of  the 
crooked  mouth,"  is  as  true  of  the  rhetorician  today  as  it 
ever  was.  I  have  not  said  one  word  about  the  Jews.  I 
have  not  used  the  word  at  all.  He  knows  all  this  well,  but 
is  capable  of  asserting  the  contrary  nevertheless.  But  if 
J  had  used  the  word,  I  am  sufficiently  familiar  with  the 
Jewish  character  to  know  that  Jews  are  just  as  quick  to 
denounce  and  disavow  Jew  criminals  as  any  other  kind 
of  criminals.  Criminals  are  mere  criminals  whatever  their 
race  or  nationality.  The  Jewish  race  brings  down  to  us 
from  the  twilight  of  history — from  that  border  line  where 
fable  scarcely  ceases  and  history  hardly  begins — knowl- 
edge of  the  one  true  and  ever  living  God,  which  is  the  one 
great  fact  of  the  world.  Such  a  people  are  too  genuine 

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MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

and   steadfast   to   be   deceived  much   by  rhetoricians   or 
demagogues,  lay  or  clerical. 

George  Rosenfeld,  Esq., 

New  York  City. 


Work  and  Abuse 

August  16,  1912. 

Dear  Mr.  Bobbitt:  Thank  you  for  your  letter  and 
for  the  articles  you  enclose.  Yes,  the  task  of  the  Mayor 
of  New  York  City  is  a  difficult  one.  I  knew  that  when 
I  finally  consented  to  run  for  Mayor,  after  having  refused 
to  do  so  twice  previously.  And  when  I  became  Mayor 
I  said  to  myself  that  I  would  do  all  that  I  could  for  the 
people  of  the  city  and  be  content  with  the  result.  I  also 
know  all  about  ingratitude.  I  do  not  look  for  gratitude, 
or  ask  for  it.  I  simply  intend  to  do  the  best  I  can.  You 
mention  the  outcry  of  newspapers.  I  do  not  even  find 
fault  with  that.  I  have  long  been  subject  to  abuse.  And 
I  have  always  been  abused  most  when  I  did  best.  What- 
ever happens,  I  go  right  on  the  same,  or  try  to.  As  soon 
as  I  became  Mayor,  I  tried  to  put  every  department  under 
a  head  who  would  take  all  politics  and  graft  out  of  it.  And 
then  I  began  with  one  department  after  the  other  to  rid 
it  of  politics  and  graft,  for  they  go  hand  in  hand.  In  that 
work  I  have  received  neither  the  aid  nor  the  good  will  of 
the  people  who  make  the  most  noise  in  this  city  in  the  way 
of  accusation  and  protestations  of  virtue.  I  have  no  rea- 
son to  complain  of  that.  I  never  expected  their  good 
will,  much  less  their  aid.  I  have  gone  right  on  without 
them.  I  think  I  have  succeeded  pretty  well  in  eliminating 
graft  from  the  city  government.  Graft  has  been  deep- 
seated  here  for  over  40  years  in  most  of  the  departments, 
if  not  in  all  of  them.  I  think  it  will  be  admitted  that  I 
have  driven  graft  out  of  nearly  all  of  them.  I  have  even 
been  fortunate  enough  to  take  most  of  the  graft  out  of  the 
Police  Department.  The  matter  of  stopping  graft  in 

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MAYOR    GAYNQR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

connection  with  gambling  and  the  like  is  an  awfully  diffi- 
cult task.  Of  course  I  have  been  able  to  give  only  com- 
paratively little  time  to  the  Police  Department.  You 
know  the  large  tilings,  and  the  small  things,  with  which 
I  have  had  to  deal,  and  am  dealing,  since  I  became  Mayor. 
Some  of  them  are  the  largest  being  dealt  with  anywhere 
in  the  world  at  this  time.  The  amount  of  time  and  mental 
and  physical  exertion  which  they  have  consumed  is,  I 
suppose,  realized  by  very  few.  But  that  I  knew  of  in 
advance,  and  I  am  content  with  it.  We  tried  to  cope 
with  this  gambling  and  like  graft  in  the  Police  Depart- 
ment by  narrowing  the  contact  of  the  department  with  the 
sources  of  graft.  I  could  see  no  other  way.  We  narrowed 
such  final  contact  down  to  a  single  point,  namely,  to  the 
Commissioner  himself,  with  a  special  squad  under  him. 
And  yet  now  we  find  that  one  of  the  three  lieutenants  of 
that  squad  was  taking  graft,  although  he  was  right  with 
the  Commissioner  at  headquarters,  and  under  his  orders 
alone.  Of  course  it  has  greatly  disturbed  and  mortified 
the  Commissioner,  for  he  is  a  young  and  sensitive  man. 
As  for  myself,  while  I  hope  I  am  not  without  feeling, 
nothing  disturbs  me  much.  I  try  to  take  everything  as 
it  comes  along.  I  of  course  expected  that  cases  of  graft 
would  develop.  The  police  force  as  a  whole  is  good.  I 
hate  to  see  the  whole  force  abused  for  the  derelictions  of 
one  or  a  few.  But  they  know  I  have  done  all  I  could  for 
them,  and  will  stand  by  them.  But  I  hope  we  shall  get 
at  the  bottom  of  all  the  graft  that  exists  in  the  Police 
Department.  I  had  started  an  investigation  of  my  own, 
and  contemplated  public  hearings,  but  when  the  Aldermen 
appointed  a  special  committee  for  the  purpose,  I  paused, 
and  concluded  to  unite  in  the  work  of  that  committee.  If, 
however,  it  is  to  be  mere  partisan  and  pre-election  work, 
to  arouse  party  prejudices,  I  shall  have  to  withdraw  from 
it  and  do  the  best  I  can  without  their  aid.  You  know  how 
things  are  started  before  election  to  create  political  preju- 
dice, and  what  injustice  is  very  often  done  thereby.  Of 
course  we  have  also  the  case  of  the  army  of  unfortunate 

94 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

women.  That  is  a  mournful  subject,  one  more  fit  to  weep 
over  than  for  political  use.  That  evil  exists  everywhere, 
now  as  in  the  past,  and  we  have  io  do  the  best  we  can  with 
it.  Those  who  drive  girls  and  women  to  such  lives  by  pay- 
ing them  starvation  wages  are  often  the  ones  who  cry  out 
loudest  against  the  public  authorities  for  not  exterminat- 
ing them  as  mere  animals.  Who  but  men  made  them  what 
they  are?  Then  let  men  deal  with  them  patiently  and 
mercifully,  and  do  everything  to  reclaim  them. 

B.  B.  Bobbitt,  Esq., 

Editor,  The  Daily  Record, 

Long  Branch,  N.  J. 

Advice  on  Marriage 

September  12,  1912. 

Dear  Sir:  There  are  plenty  of  girls  who  would  fill 
your  description  right  out  in  Minneapolis  where  you  live. 
Just  pluck  up  courage  enough  to  go  right  up  to  them 
and  tell  them  that  you  want  a  wife.  But  maybe  that  would 
be  too  abrupt.  I  did  not  go  about  it  that  way,  because  I 
did  not  have  pluck  enough,  and  maybe  you  haven't.  But 
get  around  it  the  best  you  can,  and  everything  will  come 
out  all  right. 

H.  R.  Trimmer,  Esq., 

Minneapolis,  Minn. 


Rhetoricians 

September  16,  1912. 

Dear  Mr.  Bernstein :  I  thank  you  for  your  kind  let- 
ter, but  I  have  no  ill-feeling  against  Rabbi  Wise.  Of 
course  I  have  observed  in  common  with  the  rest  of  the 
community  that  he  is  without  charity  or  truthfulness,  al- 
though a  preacher  and  teacher.  But  I  have  to  remember 
that  he  is  a  mere  rhetorician,  and  you  know  that  rhetori- 
cians are  proverbially  uncharitable  and  untruthful.  The 

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MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

mouths  of  all  of  them  are  crooked,  to  use  an  ancient  phrase, 
and  you  cannot  expect  truth  or  charity  to  come  from  a 
crooked  mouth. 

David  Bernstein,  Esq., 

New  York  City. 

A  Rhetorician 

Sept.  18,  1912. 

Dear  Mr.  Miller:  I  have  your  letter  of  September 
17th  with  regard  to  Rabbi  Wise.  Yes,  I  know  he  has 
made  several  very  uncharitable  and  untruthful  attacks  on 
me.  But  I  bear  him  no  ill  will.  He  is  a  clergyman,  and 
it  is  always  a  painful  sight  to  see  a  clergyman  with  no 
charity  or  truth  in  his  heart  or  soul.  He  has  never  lent 
me  a  helping  hand.  He  has  studiously  tried  to  thwart  me 
and  do  all  the  injury  he  can.  I  do  not  know  why,  except 
that  it  is  his  nature.  He  is  a  rhetorician,  and  I  suppose 
you  know  that  as  a  rule  rhetoricians  are  devoid  of  charity 
or  honesty.  To  air  their  rhetoric  they  will  say  and  do  the 
most  unjust  and  uncharitable  things.  But  if  you  see  him 
tell  him  that  I  bear  him  no  ill  will  whatever.  I  have  had 
to  work  hard  as  mayor  to  accomplish  things  which  I  set 
out  to  do.  That  he  has  not  offered  me  his  hand  concerns 
him  more  than  it  concerns  me,  and  that  is  also  true  of  what 
he  says  of  me. 

L.  E.  Miller,  Esq., 

Editor,  The  Warheit, 

Manhattan. 

Police   Reforms    and    c  The   Eternal   Priestess   of 

Humanity,  Blasted  for  the  Sins 

of  the  People" 

September  18,  1912. 

Dear  Mr.  Hayes :  The  delay  in  answering  your  letter 
has  been  due  to  the  many  things  which  have  pressed  upon 

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MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

me.  And  then,  again,  I  saw  no  use  in  complying  with 
your  suggestion  when  you  called  upon  me  that  I  enumer- 
ate for  publication  the  reforms  which  have  been  worked 
out  in  the  Police  Department  since  I  have  been  Mayor, 
until  the  tide  of  falsehood  and  abuse  against  the  depart- 
ment should  subside.  My  great  anxiety  has  been  that 
these  false  attacks  on  the  entire  police  force  might  affect 
the  men,  and  make  them  indifferent  to  the  performance 
of  their  duties.  No  one  can  deny  that  all  possible  has 
been  done  to  break  down  the  discipline  of  the  police  force. 
But  I  am  glad  to  assure  you  that  from  close  observation 
I  am  able  to  say  that  it  has  had  little  or  no  effect  either 
on  the  police  force  or  on  the  intelligent  and  decent  com- 
munity. I  am  not  able  to  say  to  you  what  effect  it  has 
had  upon  the  degenerates  of  the  community. 

The  case  of  Becker  did  not  surprise  me  at  all.  Al- 
though we  had  done  much  to  remove  grafting  and  make 
it  impossible  in  the  Police  Department,  I  knew  very  well 
that  it  would  in  all  probability  crop  out  in  more  places 
than  one.  The  instance  which  has  cropped  out  has  enabled 
the  degenerate  press  to  characterize  the  whole  force  as  a 
band  of  grafters.  But  I  am  certain  that  the  intelligent 
community  still  have  in  mind,  and  have  had  in  mind  all 
along,  what  we  have  done  in  the  way  of  reform  in  the 
police  force.  In  no  other  department  has  so  much  been 
successfully  done.  Let  me  enumerate  some  of  these  things : 
First — The  first  thing  was  to  do  away  with  unlawful 
batteries  and  mistreatment  of  citizens  by  policemen.  All 
over  the  city  decent  people  had  been  clubbed,  mistreated 
and  insulted  for  years.  Nothing  had  been  done  to  stop  it. 
The  evil  grew  all  the  time.  I  think  we  have  practically 
put  an  end  to  all  that.  It  was  accomplished  only  by  dis- 
missing several  from  the  force  for  unlawful  violence  and 
rudeness.  The  police  now  understand  that  they  are  the 
servants  of  the  community,  not  their  masters.  That  they 
had  forgotten  it  was  not  due  to  the  men  of  the  force,  but 
to  the  arbitrary  and  lawless  way  in  which  they  had  been 
handled  and  ruled  for  years. 

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MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

Second — We  then  taught  the  force  not  to  arrest  people 
and  lock  them  up  for  petty  things,  but  to  take  their  names 
and  have  them  summoned,  if  even  that  were  necessary. 
That  is  now  an  accomplished  fact  in  this  city.  These  petty 
arrests  have  been  largely  done  away  with,  and  where 
arrests  should  be  made  for  minor  offenses  we  have  taught 
the  force  to  resort  to  the  method  of  summoning,  where  the 
accused  persons  have  a  residence  and  are  known.  In  this 
way  we  have  protected  citizens  generally  from  being 
locked  up  with  criminals,  often  overnight,  only  to  be  dis- 
charged the  next  day.  We  have  also  in  this  way  destroyed 
the  occupation  of  the  professional  bondsman,  which  was 
the  source  of  large  revenue  to  such  bondsmen  and  also  to 
officials  in  the  Police  Department.  In  this  connection  I 
should  say  we  have  particularly  done  away  with  the  arrest- 
ing and  locking  up  of  boys  for  pranks  in  the  streets,  and 
minor  things,  which  many  boys  are  prone  to  commit,  the 
same  as  we  did  when  boys.  The  arresting  and  locking  up 
of  boys  for  such  things  simply  hardens  them  and  turns 
them  into  criminals.  I  suppose  every  intelligent  person 
knows  the  great  changes  which  have  been  made  in  these 
respects  in  the  Police  Department. 

Third — The  practice  of  photographing  persons  ar- 
rested for  criminal  offenses,  and  even  boys,  before  convic- 
tion, or  for  minor  offenses,  and  putting  their  photographs 
in  the  rogues'  gallery,  thus  disgracing  them,  and  often 
making  criminals  of  them,  has  been  stopped.  That  prac- 
tice is  confined  to  persons  convicted  of  serious  crimes. 

Fourth — We  have  done  away  with  the  former  practice 
of  the  police  to  take  sides  in  strikes  and  labor  disputes, 
and  commit  unlawful  acts  of  oppression  and  violence 
therein.  The  police  now  understand  that  their  whole  duty 
in  strikes  is  to  preserve  the  public  peace.  In  order  to  ac- 
complish this  we  had  to  try  and  discipline  certain  officers 
who  took  presents,  in  one  case  as  much  as  $1,000,  from 
employers  to  do  their  bidding. 

Fifth — We  did  away  with  the  so-called  special  police. 
There  were  over  1,300  of  them.  As  you  know  they  were 

98 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

sworn  in  as  policemen,  thereby  becoming  public  officers. 
They  were  then  turned  over  to  private  persons,  and  put 
under  their  pay  and  orders.  If  they  did  not  obey  the 
orders  of  their  employer  they  were  dismissed.  So  far  as 
I  know  it  was  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  government 
that  public  officers  were  put  under  the  pay  and  direction 
of  private  persons.  A  public  officer  acts  under  his  oath 
and  under  the  law  according  to  his  judgment  and  discre- 
tion. But  these  public  officers  were  put  under  the  pay 
and  direction  of  private  individuals,  and  had  to  do  the 
bidding  of  their  employers  in  order  to  receive  their  pay. 
The  result  was  gross  oppression  and  interference.  You 
might  as  wrell  put  the  Mayor  of  the  city  under  the  direc- 
tion and  pay  of  private  individuals. 

Sixth — There  are  about  10,000  hotels  and  saloons  in 
this  city.  These  places  had  long  been  subject  to  extortion 
by  those  who  ruled  over  the  police,  in  connection  with  cer- 
tain outside  persons  of  influence.  The  moderate  average 
extortion  of  $25  a  month  from  each  would  amount  to 
about  $3,000,000  a  year.  But  the  gross  sum  of  the  extor- 
tion was  probably  much  more.  This  was  done  away  with. 
Instead  of  permitting  every  officer  or  member  of  the  force 
to  go  into  these  places  at  will,  especially  on  Sundays,  and 
deal  with  them,  and  take  money  of  them,  the  enforcement 
of  the  liquor  law  in  the  way  prescribed  by  that  law  itself 
was  put  into  effect  for  the  first  time  in  the  city  of  New 
York.  The  old  way  was  not  that  prescribed  by  the  law, 
but  a  way  designed  to  levy  graft  by  entering  and  threaten- 
ing or  making  arrests  on  the  spot  without  a  warrant,  in- 
stead of  reporting  such  cases  to  the  District  Attorney  for 
him  to  prosecute,  all  as  prescribed  by  the  statute.  The 
law  forbids  any  traffic  in  liquor  in  the  barrooms  of  the  city 
on  Sunday  and  requires  them  to  be  vacated.  In  order 
that  that  requirement  might  be  easily  enforced,  the  law 
requires  that  all  blinds  or  curtains  of  barrooms  shall  be 
up  on  Sunday,  so  that  all  passersby  may  see  whether  there 
is  anyone  therein.  The  police  are  required  to  report  on 
Monday  morning  by  affidavit  every  barroom  in  which  this 

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MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

law  was  violated,  or  in  which  anyone  was  seen.  These  re- 
ports are  turned  over  to  the  District  Attorney  as  required 
by  the  statute  for  prosecution.  The  result  has  been  a  gen- 
eral closing  of  all  barrooms  in  the  city  on  Sunday.  It  is 
true  that  liquor  is  sold  in  the  dining  room,  or  the  inner 
rooms,  of  hotels  on  Sunday.  The  answer  to  that  is  that 
the  statute  permits  such  sales.  I  found  most  people  under 
the  impression  that  the  statute  forbids  the  sale  of  liquor 
on  Sunday.  We  never  had  any  such  statute  in  this  State. 
On  the  contrary,  while  the  statute  forbids  the  sale  of 
liquor  in  barrooms,  and  requires  them  to  be  closed,  it  per- 
mits the  sale  of  liquor  with  meals  in  other  rooms  in  all 
places  having  an  hotel  license.  And  the  courts  decide 
what  a  meal  is.  The  police  cannot  decide  that.  A  sand- 
wich has  been  decided  to  be  a  meal.  Hence  we  see  sand- 
wiches furnished  with  drinks  throughout  the  city  on  Sun- 
day. But  when  you  get  outside  of  this  city  liquor  is  openly 
sold  all  over  the  state  on  Sunday  without  any  sandwich 
being  furnished.  The  furnishing  of  the  sandwich  seems  to 
put  in  the  minds  of  people  that  laws  may  be  in  one  way 
and  another  evaded.  With  only  10,000  police  and  10,000 
hotels  or  liquor  places,  it  is  hard  to  discover  and  prevent 
the  unlawful  sale  of  liquor  in  the  inner  rooms.  But  we 
have  to  do  the  best  we  can.  If  all  the  police  were  devoted 
to  that  work  there  are  not  enough  to  go  around.  And, 
again,  it  is  impossible  to  enforce  this  law  when  the  people 
of  the  neighborhood  do  not  support  it.  No  law  can  be 
enforced  against  the  will  of  the  community,  or  a  consider- 
able minority  thereof. 

Seventh — For  many  years  before  I  became  Mayor, 
the  police  had  been  in  the  habit  of  violently  smashing  into 
houses  without  warrants.  The  force  was  not  to  blame  for 
this.  The  blame  was  with  the  persons  in  rulership  over 
the  police.  They  made  the  police  do  these  unlawful  things. 
They  made  use  of  these  unlawful  entries  to  collect  graft 
from  houses  all  over  the  city.  The  constitution  and  the 
laws  forbid  the  forcible  entry  of  houses  except  under  a 
warrant  obtained  from  a  magistrate.  We  put  this  in  force 

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MAYOR  GAYNOITS  LETTERS  AND  SPEECHES 

and  stopped  all  these  lawless  entries.  They  were  called 
by  the  lawless  name  of  raids.  If  the  prescribed  graft  was 
not  paid  a  raid  followed.  This  was  notice  to  all  others  in 
like  case  to  pay  up.  The  way  to  enter  a  house  is  to  get 
the  evidence  against  it,  and  then  on  that  evidence  obtain 
a  warrant  from  a  magistrate,  and  then  enter,  warrant  in 
hand,  and  make  the  arrest.  This  is  the  effective  way  of 
carrying  out  the  law.  If  a  place  is  so  decorous  that  no  evi- 
dence against  it  can  be  obtained,  then  leave  it  alone.  You 
have  to  do  that  with  even  a  murderer.  But  if  the  police 
are  allowed  to  enter  all  such  places  at  will  without  a  war- 
rant, they  make  use  of  such  entries  to  levy  graft  to  stay 
out.  The  way  to  enforce  the  law  is  the  way  prescribed  by 
the  law.  No  one  has  a  right  to  go  outside  of,  or  exceed, 
or  disregard  the  law.  The  highest  officer  in  the  land  has 
no  right  to  do  that.  If  that  could  be  done  our  government 
would  not  be  a  government  of  laws  but  a  government  of 
men,  which  is  a  despotism.  The  people  make  the  laws, 
and  those  put  in  office  have  to  conform  to  them. 

Eighth — The  detective  force  has  been  entirely  reor- 
ganized. All  the  incompetent  persons  who  were  put  there 
by  political  and  like  influence  have  been  put  out  and  com- 
petent men  substituted  in  their  place.  I  suppose  you  are 
aware  that  it  has  done  splendid  work,  and  is  recognized 
as  one  of  the  best  secret  service  forces  in  the  world.  In 
fact,  it  largely  does  duty  for  the  whole  country,  and  not 
merely  for  the  city  of  New  York. 

Ninth — Formerly  the  vice  of  gambling  was  dealt  with 
separately  all  along  the  line  by  captains  and  inspectors 
of  the  Police  Department.  The  result  was  much  corrup- 
tion of  the  force  by  keepers  of  bad  houses  and  the  gamblers 
and  their  allies.  Corruption  was  possible  at  every  point 
of  contact.  The  seven  race  tracks  on  which  races  were 
run  almost  every  day  in  and  about  the  city  of  New  York 
had  been  done  away  with  just  before  I  became  Mayor. 
The  result  was  that  the  army  of  gamblers  who  gambled 
on  these  tracks,  were  put  out  of  that  business,  and  thrown 
on  this  city.  The  police  had  a  most  difficult  situation  to 

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MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

meet.  We  organized  a  special  force  to  deal  with  gambling. 
That  special  force  of  150  men  was  put  under  the  Commis- 
sioner himself.  Three  lieutenants  were  put  in  charge  of 
them,  and  made  subject  to  the  orders  of  the  Commissioner 
only.  It  happened  recently  that  one  of  these  lieutenants 
was  found  taking  graft  from  the  gamblers.  Of  course 
it  was  a  painful  thing  to  the  Commissioner  to  be  deceived 
in  that  way  by  one  immediately  under  him.  But  the  same 
might  happen  to  any  commissioner,  the  same  as  defalca- 
tions of  bank  officers  and  trusted  employes  are  constantly 
happening.  It  was  painful  to  me,  although  I  fully  ex- 
pected that  some  cases  of  graft  would  develop.  I  knew 
very  well  that  I  could  not  at  once  destroy  the  deep-seated 
graft  of  forty  years'  standing.  It  is  a  matter  which  re- 
quires systematic  work  and  patience.  The  event  was  fol- 
lowed by  all  sorts  of  false  accusations  against  the  whole 
force.  It  is  now  known  that  Becker  was  the  head  and 
front  of  the  grafting  with  which  he  was  connected,  in- 
stead of  being  the  underling  or  tool  of  anyone  else.  I 
think  that  the  respectable  people  of  the  city  have  all  along 
kept  their  heads  about  the  matter,  and  not  given  away  to 
clamor.  They  knew  the  Mayor's  job  is  a  hard  one,  and 
also  the  Commissioner's.  At  all  events,  conscious  of  what 
I  had  done,  and  tried  to  do,  to  reform  the  police  force,  I 
felt  that  I  was  entitled  to  the  goodwill  and  assistance  of 
every  intelligent  and  honest  person  in  the  city,  without 
regard  to  party  politics,  for  you  know  I  have  entirely  dis- 
regarded that  in  the  government  of  the  city.  But  many 
people  have  attacked  me  in  the  most  uncharitable  and 
vicious  manner,  like  Rabbi  Wise,  for  instance.  But  they 
have  moved  me  less  than  you  may  suppose,  and  you  are 
well  acquainted  with  me.  In  the  midst  of  the  din  and 
fury  I  kept  saying  to  myself  each  day:  "  Now  you  must 
be  patient.  A  bad  thing  has  happened.  But  you  must 
take  it  as  an  incentive  to  work  harder  than  ever  to  accom- 
plish what  you  have  set  out  to  do.  Bend  to  God's  will  of 
you  and  be  content."  And  that  is  what  the  Police  Com- 
missioner is  doing.  He  is  a  younger  man,  and  probably 

102 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

felt  the  abuse  and  falsehood  more  keenly  than  I  did.  In 
the  midst  of  all  the  nagging  and  noise  we  have  made  a 
most  careful  investigation,  not  through  the  newspapers, 
however,  and  I  think  we  have  our  bearings.  We  are  going 
right  on.  If  we  have  not  received  the  help  and  goodwill 
which  we  felt  we  were  entitled  to,  we  do  not  complain  of 
it.  To  do  away  with  the  possibility  of  these  gamblers  and 
the  scoundrels  who  are  allied  with  them  corrupting  police 
officials  here  and  there  is  a  hard  thing.  But  I  think  we 
will  do  it.  We  have  already  taken  most  of  the  graft  out 
of  the  department,  and  by  patience  and  persistence  it  can 
all  be  taken  out. 

Tenth — We  have  already  eradicated  from  the  Depart- 
ment all  graft  in  appointments  and  promotions.  For 
many  years  they  had  been  paid  for.  We  resorted  to  the 
simple  expedient  of  appointing  and  promoting  from  the 
eligible  list  in  numerical  order.  Under  that  system  it  is 
impossible  to  sell  appointments  or  promotions. 

Eleventh — I  come  now  to  a  mournful  subject,  namely, 
that  of  unfortunate  women.  They  were  in  the  world  at 
the  beginning  of  history,  yes,  at  that  border  line  where 
fable  scarcely  ceases  and  history  hardly  begins,  and  they 
are  here  yet.  They  will  continue  to  be  here  until  by  the 
aid  of  moral  teaching  the  hearts  and  propensities  of  men 
shall  be  subdued  and  made  better.  These  women  are  what 
men  made  them.  One  of  the  chief  causes  of  their  resorting 
to  such  a  manner  of  life  is  that  very  often  they  are  paid 
wages  which  do  not  enable  them  to  live.  They  are  driven 
to  it.  Yet  some  of  those  who  treat  them  in  this  way  come 
forward  periodically  to  proclaim  the  loudest  and  the  most 
cruelly  against  them.  If  it  were  possible  under  the  law 
to  lock  all  of  these  women  up,  which  it  is  not,  and  we  had 
places  for  their  detention,  which  we  have  not,  an  equal 
number  would  promptly  take  their  places.  We  have  to 
deal  with  them  as  best  we  can.  The  tendency  is  for  such 
women  to  congregate  in  one  or  a  few  localities.  To  pre- 
vent this  tendency  and  scatter  them  all  over  the  city  would 
be  the  worst  thing  that  could  happen.  By  their  example 

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MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

they  would  scandalize  other  women  and  girls  all  over  the 
city  and  cause  them  to  go  astray.  Dealing  with  them  is 
a  routine.  I  have  never  made  any  change  in  that  routine. 
In  other  words,  I  have  never  adopted  any  new  policy  in 
respect  of  them.  I  did  only  one  thing  in  respect  of  chang- 
ing the  method  of  enforcing  the  law  with  regard  to  them. 
Before  I  became  Mayor  it  had  for  years  been  the  custom 
to  send  policemen  to  drink  wine  and  eat  with  such  women, 
and  take  them  to  the  rooms  of  the  houses  in  which  they 
lived,  and  have  them  undress.  This  was  to  get  evidence. 
I  issued  orders  that  no  policeman  should  be  assigned  to 
any  such  degrading  service.  To  subject  policemen  to 
such  temptation  and  degradation  was  an  outrage. 

In  past  years  I  have  gone  over  the  literature  of  the 
subject  of  prostitution,  beginning  with  St.  Augustine,  and 
ending  in  our  own  times  with  Lecky  in  his  "  History  of 
European  Morals,"  and  the  chapter  of  Professor  Lilly 
in  his  "  First  Principles  in  Politics."  I  wish  that  every 
man  in  New  York  who  thinks  he  would  like  to  interfere 
with  this  subject  would  first  read  Lecky 's  great  fifth  chap- 
ter. I  cannot  forbear  quoting  this  one  passage  from  him : 

:<  Under  these  circumstances,  there  has  arisen 
in  society  a  figure  which  is  certainly  the  most 
mournful,  and  in  some  respects  the  most  awful, 
upon  which  the  eye  of  the  moralist  can  dwell.  *  *  * 
Herself  the  supreme  type  of  vice,  she  is  ultimately 
the  most  efficient  guardian  of  virtue.  But  for  her, 
the  unchallenged  purity  of  countless  happy  homes 
would  be  polluted,  and  not  a  few  who,  in  the  pride 
of  their  untempted  chastity,  think  of  her  with  an  in- 
dignant shudder,  would  have  known  the  agony  of 
remorse  and  of  despair.  On  that  one  degraded  and 
ignoble  form  are  concentrated  the  passions  that 
might  have  filled  the  world  with  shame.  She  re- 
mains, while  creeds  and  civilizations  rise  and  fall, 
the  eternal  priestess  of  humanity,  blasted  for  the 
sins  of  the  people." 

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MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

But  let  me  forbear.  The  subject  is  one  to  weep  over, 
rather  than  to  bring  into  politics.  And  yet  in  this  city 
little  politicians  and  investigators  every  few  years  try  to 
crawl  into  office  over  the  bodies  of  these  unfortunate 
women,  or  by  starting  a  hue  and  cry  about  them.  But 
none  of  them  has  ever  succeeded.  Nowhere  else  in  the 
world  has  such  a  base  spectacle  been  presented.  And 
there  are  others  who  in  this  respect,  and  in  all  matters  of 
vice  and  crime,  are  constantly  bent  on  humiliating  and 
degrading  this  city — the  most  decent  and  orderly  large 
city  in  the  world. 

J.  Noble  Hayes,  Esq., 

New  York  City. 

Calmness  and  Philosophy  in  the  Midst  of  Clamor 

Sept.  24,  1912. 

My  dear  Judge  Clearwater:  In  the  largest  mail  of 
encouragement  which  I  have  received  since  I  became 
Mayor  I  find  your  letter  of  September  20.  It  was  very 
good  of  one  of  your  eminence,  and  not  a  resident  of  this 
city,  to  take  the  time  to  write  me  such  an  encouraging 
letter.  I  am  glad  you  approve  of  my  letter  on  police  mat- 
ters to  Mr.  Hayes.  You  speak  of  what  you  call  the  "  tre- 
mendous opposition  and  astounding  abuse  "  to  which  I 
have  been  subjected,  and  say  that  you  do  not  see  how  I 
stand  it,  or  "  preserve  your  (my)  serenity,"  as  you  express 
it.  I  have  to  do  the  best  I  can.  The  clamor  and  false 
statements  of  vicious  persons  and  newspapers  no  doubt 
hinder  me  some,  but  I  have  to  overlook  them  and  go  right 
along.  Every  morning  I  just  forgive  everybody  and  then 
take  up  the  work  where  I  left  off  the  day  before  and  go 
right  on.  How  else  could  I  do  it?  In  the  din  of  clamor 
and  falsehood  I  often  repeat  to  myself  the  saying  of 
Marcus  Aurelius :  '  There  is  but  one  thing  of  real  value, 
namely,  to  cultivate  truth  and  justice,  and  to  live  without 
anger  in  the  midst  of  lying  and  unjust  men."  That  makes 
me  content.  I  do  not  seek  the  good  will  of  degenerate 

105 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

newspapers.    The  good  will  of  intelligent  and  honest  peo- 
ple is  what  I  desire. 

The  job  of  preventing  scoundrels  from  bribing  the 
police,  and  the  police  from  taking  bribes  from  scoundrels, 
is  a  difficult  one.  I  hope  I  have  succeeded  largely,  and  I 
hope  in  the  end  that  I  shall  succeed  entirely.  After  40 
years  of  graft  and  corruption,  and  of  rulership  over  the 
police  by  dishonest,  lawless  and  ignorant  men,  it  is  not 
an  easy  thing  to  bring  about  a  better  order  of  things.  I 
was  not  at  all  surprised  when  it  was  found  that  Lieut. 
Becker  was  taking  graft.  That  was  nothing  new  in  the 
Police  Department.  It  would  have  been  nothing  new 
if  the  Police  Commissioner  himself  was  found  to  be  tak- 
ing graft,  according  to  the  past  history  of  that  Depart- 
ment. But  I  have  a  Police  Commissioner  who  is  incapable 
of  taking  graft.  And  I  have  an  able  and  honest  man  at 
the  head  of  each  of  the  other  departments  of  the  city,  and 
reform  and  good  work  are  being  done  all  the  time.  Con- 
scious of  this  nothing  can  disturb  me,  although  I  may  be 
to  some  extent  baffled  by  the  opposition  of  criminals  and 
degenerates.  If  I  am  ever  inclined  to  feel  discouraged 
when  these  are  joined  by  persons  who  believe  themselves 
righteous,  but  never  give  me  a  helping  hand,  a  mo- 
ment's withdrawal  into  my  inner  self  makes  me  patient 
again,  and  able  to  see  again  in  the  complexities  of 
things  only  the  slow  working  out  of  God's  will.  And  let- 
ters from  men  like  you,  and  good  women,  make  me  know 
that  we  are  not  working  in  vain. 

Hon.  A.  T.  Clearwater, 

Kingston,  N.  Y. 

Stick  Pins 

September  26,  1912. 

Dear  Mr.  Tanenbaum:  I  fear  I  have  no  power  to 
prohibit  the  ladies  from  having  stick  pins  in  their  hats. 
Suppose  you  apply  to  the  Board  of  Aldermen?  They 
seem  to  be  able  to  do  almost  everything.  I  must  confess 

106 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

that  I  never  saw  anyone  hurt  by  a  lady's  hat  pin,  but  since 
you  say  so,  and  since  the  Prefect  of  the  Rhone  Depart- 
ment has  issued  an  edict  against  ladies'  hat  pins,  I  sup- 
pose they  must  do  much  slaughter.  But  is  it  altogether 
seemly  for  a  man  to  get  his  face  so  close  to  a  lady's  hat 
pin  as  to  get  scratched?  Shouldn't  such  a  fellow  get 
scratched? 

Moses  Tanenbaum,  Esq., 

New  York  City. 

Police  Interference  at  the  Polls 

October  9,  1912. 

Dear  Sir:  Your  letter  of  October  8th  containing  a 
"  protest  "  and  a  "  demand  "  regarding  where  the  police 
shall  be  stationed  and  what  they  shall  do  on  Election  Day 
is  at  hand.  Your  tone  is  peremptory,  but  suffer  me  to  say 
unto  you  that  you  share  a  grave  misunderstanding  in  re- 
spect of  the  power  and  duties  of  the  police  at  elections. 
Their  duty  begins  and  ends  with  preserving  the  peace. 
The  law  provides  election  officers  to  conduct  elections, 
and  clothes  them  with  ample  powers.  It  even  expressly 
confers  on  them  the  powers  of  arrest  possessed  by  peace 
officers.  The  police  have  no  right  or  power  to  forbid  any- 
one to  vote,  or  to  prevent  any  one  from  voting,  or  to  as- 
sist any  one  doing  the  like.  Your  request  that  police 
officers  be  stationed  in  the  polling  places  for  that  purpose 
cannot  be  entertained.  Any  intimidation  whatever  at  the 
polls  is  illegal.  To  station  policemen  in  the  polls  to  pre- 
vent or  obstruct  or  intimidate  those  who  come  to  vote 
might  and  probably  would  grow  into  an  evil  which  would 
destroy  our  system  of  government.  That  is  the  way  they 
do  in  Mexico  and  Russia  to  carry  elections,  but  not  in  a 
free  country.  It  is  one  of  the  ways  of  despotism.  To 
avoid  such  an  overwhelming  evil  our  law  makes  every 
man  a  sovereign  on  Election  Day.  He  cannot  be  inter- 
fered with  on  the  way  to  the  polls,  or  at  the  polls,  unless 
he  do  some  act  in  breach  of  the  peace.  The  only  way  to 

107 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

stop  him  from  voting  is  to  challenge  his  vote  as  unlawful. 
This  any  election  official,  watcher  or  citizen  may  do.  When 
that  is  done  he  cannot  vote  unless  he  take  the  prescribed 
oath,  and  in  that  way  swear  in  his  vote,  as  the  phrase  is. 
If  he  take  the  oath  no  one  can  stop  him  from  voting.  If 
he  refuse  to  take  the  oath  he  must  withdraw  without  vot- 
ing. If  he  refuse  to  withdraw  he  may  be  arrested  and 
taken  out.  If  he  vote  illegally,  with  or  without  the  oath, 
he  may  be  arrested  after  he  votes,  not  before. 

To  allow  the  police  to  say  who  may  and  who  may  not 
vote,  or  to  interfere  to  prevent  people  from  voting,  would 
render  our  elections  no  longer  free.  And  free  elections 
are  the  cornerstone  of  our  system  of  government,  i.  e.,  of 
free  government, i.  e.,  of  government  by  the  people.  Can 
you  not  perceive  how  rapidly  such  an  evil  would  grow, 
and  how  fatal  it  would  become?  Have  you  ever  read  the 
law  and  history  of  elections  in  this  country,  or  in  Anglo- 
Saxon  countries?  Do  you  know  that  from  the  earliest 
times  no  show  of  force  has  been  allowed  at  the  polls  ?  Do 
you  know  that  among  our  earliest  statutes  in  this  country 
is  one  copied  from  an  ancient  English  statute  prohibiting 
any  military  force  from  being  quartered  within  a  certain 
distance  of  a  polling  place  on  Election  Day?  To  allow 
everyone  to  vote  who  will  take  the  risk  of  swearing  in  his 
vote  may  lead  to  the  evil  of  some  illegal  votes.  But  to 
allow  the  police  to  prevent  people  from  voting  by  force, 
or  threats,  or  intimidation,  would  result  in  an  infinitely 
greater  evil.  And  of  two  evils  the  law  always  chooses  the 
lesser.  Do  you  perceive  what  I  am  trying  to  make  plain 
in  a  few  words? 

I  do  not  share  your  predictions  of  fraudulent  or  illegal 
voting  at  our  coming  election  in  this  city.  Permit  me  to 
say  that  nowhere  in  this  state  or  in  this  nation  are  elec- 
tions more  peaceable  and  honest  than  in  this  City  of  New 
York.  The  police  will  be  near  enough  to  the  polls  to  pre- 
serve the  peace,  and  to  respond  to  the  call  of  any  election 
officer  or  any  citizen  to  quell  tumult  or  make  lawful 
arrests.  But  they  will  not  be  permitted  to  unlawfully 

108 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

interfere  or  make  unlawful  arrests.  Substantially  all  of 
the  fraudulent  voting  here  in  years  gone  by  was  done 
under  the  encouragement  and  patronage  of  policemen 
stationed  in  the  polling  places  to  do  the  bidding  of  cor- 
rupt political  leaders.  Did  you  ever  hear  of  that  ? 

Dr.  Nathan  Rattnoff, 

New  York  City. 

Immigration 

October  28,  1912. 

Dear  Sir:  I  am  not  able  to  think  of  even  one  reason 
why  foreign  immigration  should  be  stopped.  If  you  were 
to  even  stop  the  Italians  from  coming  into  this  country 
it  would  result  in  immediate  disaster.  They  are  doing  all 
of  our  heavy  work  all  over  the  country.  Do  you  not  your- 
self see  what  would  happen  if  they  were  excluded?  Why 
are  people  here  so  eager  to  exclude  foreigners?  Are  we 
not  a  nation  of  foreigners ?  Are  not  you  a  foreigner?  Or 
was  not  your  grandfather  one?  We  might  well  exclude 
foreigners  who  come  over  here  to  peddle  or  beg,  but  we 
should  exclude  no  foreigner  who  comes  over  here  to  work. 

Spurgeon  Lane,  Esq., 

Wesson,  Miss. 

Children  in  Her  Way 

October  31,  1912. 

Dear  Mrs.  -  — :  I  thank  you  for  your  letter.  But 
the  children  on  roller  skates  think  you  and  your  motor  car 
are  in  their  way,  while  you  think  they  are  in  your  way. 
Which  is  right?  The  point  of  view  is  everything,  or  at  all 
events  very  much,  as  is  the  case  in  all  things.  Now  you 
will  say  that  I  am  joking  with  you  again.  Show  this  to 
your  husband  and  I  will  leave  him  to  say  whether  I  have 
not  got  back  at  you  pretty  well.  We  are  trying  to  dimin- 
ish the  roller  skating  in  places  where  it  is  dangerous  for 

109 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

the  children  to  use  roller-skates.    But  of  course  we  cannot 
stop  them  altogether.     I  should  not  like  to  try  to. 

Walking 

October  31,  1912. 

Dear  Mr.  Mayor :  Mr.  Harvey  Thoren  walks  into  my 
office  this  day  with  a  letter  from  you  to  me  dated  March 
12th  last.  He  informs  me  that  he  has  walked  all  the  way 
from  San  Francisco  here  in  7  months  and  26  days.  He 
does  not  give  me  the  hours,  minutes  and  seconds  over.  But 
he  is  a  red  hot  picture  of  health.  He  is  a  good,  wholesome, 
athletic  Norseman,  born  in  Sweden.  He  intends  to  walk 
back,  and  I  am  giving  him  this  letter  to  you.  If  I  had 
time  I  would  go  with  him.  It  would  do  me  good.  They 
knock  me  around  pretty  hard  here  now  and  then,  if  not 
all  the  time,  and  some  days  I  feel  as  though  a  good  long 
walk  would  just  suit  me — the  farther  away  the  better. 
But  the  next  day  I  feel  all  right  and  content  again. 

Hon.  James  Rolph,  Jr.,  Mayor, 

San  Francisco,  Cal. 

Grasshoppers,  the  Broom  Crop  and  Some  Newspapers 

November  11,  1912. 

Dear  Sir:  Your  letter  of  November  4th,  asking  me 
to  assure  the  broom  manufacturers  that  the  grasshoppers 
did  not  eat  up  the  broom  corn  crop  in  Oklahoma,  as  is 
reported  in  the  newspapers,  is  at  hand.  I  do  not  know 
why  the  grasshoppers  should  eat  up  the  broom  corn  crop 
when  there  are  so  many  other  things  much  more  juicy 
and  satisfactory  to  their  palates.  I  am  therefore  quite 
ready  to  believe  you,  and  I  shall  pass  the  word  around 
among  the  broom  manufacturers,  if  I  can.  Perhaps  the 
newspapers  will  do  it,  although  it  is  very  hard  to  get  some 
of  them  to  contradict  their  own  stories.  It  detracts  from 
the  notion  of  their  infallibility.  However,  we  have  some 
newspapers  here  that  are  just  as  ready  to  contradict  them- 

110 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

selves  as  to  contradict  anybody  else.  They  daily  contra- 
dict in  their  morning  edition  what  they  say  in  their  even- 
ing edition,  and  in  the  evening  what  they  say  in  the 
morning. 

H.  H.  Henderson,  Esq., 

Yalton,  Okla. 

The  Sabbath 

November  15,  1912. 

Dear  Madam:  I  have  just  received  your  second  letter 
to  me  about  Sabbath  observance,  by  which  you  mean  Sun- 
day observance.  I  agree  with  you  about  observing  the 
day  of  rest.  But  we  must  be  fair  and  charitable  to  others. 
The  Christians  do  not  observe  the  Sabbath  Day,  namely 
the  seventh  day,  established  by  God  according  to  the  4th 
Commandment,  or  the  3rd,  as  some  number  it.  The  Chris- 
tians abandoned  that  day,  and  adopted  Sunday,  which  is 
the  first  day  of  the  week.  It  is  all  right  for  us  to  observe 
Sunday,  but  let  us  have  no  miserable  little  prejudice 
against  the  Jews  because  they  stick  to  the  Sabbath.  Some 
Christian  sects  also  adhere  to  the  Sabbath,  stoutly  main- 
taining that  no  one  had  the  right  to  change  the  day  of  rest 
ordained  of  God  from  the  seventh  to  the  first  day  of  the 
week. 

Miss  Lillian  Freund, 

New  York  City. 

Kirk  Alloway  and  the  "  Auld  Brig "  and  the  ff  New 

Brig" 

November  18,  1912. 

Dear  Doctor  Morrison :  I  have  your  letter  of  Novem- 
ber 6th  saying  that  you  are  in  Ayr,  and  that  you  went  to 
the  little  inn  where  Tarn  O'Shanter  and  Souter  Johnnie 
used  to  booze  of  evenings  "  o'er  the  nappy,"  and  that  you 
bought  a  glass  of  ale  for  three  cents.  I  was  there  also  some 
years  ago.  I  saw  the  "stirrup  cup"  and  took  a  good  snifter 
out  of  it.  It  is  the  cup  which  they  handed  to  the  boozer 

111 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

after  he  got  on  his  horse  and  was  about  to  start  for  home. 
I  then  followed  Tarn  O'Shanter's  route  along  the  road 
until  I  came  to  Kirk  Alloway,  or  what  is  now  the  ruins  of 
Kirk  Alloway.  I  got  on  tiptoe  and  looked  in.  I  saw  the 
whole  business,  witches,  bogles,  banshees,  hobgoblins,  war- 
locks, and  the  whole  hellish  pack,  and  also  "  cutty  sark." 
I  was  in  tremendous  excitement.  I  am  certain  I  saw  the 
whole  business,  just  as  certain  as  that  I  am  writing  you 
this  letter.  My  son  Rufus  was  with  me  and  saw  it  all  also. 
When  the  lights  went  out  and  they  all  rushed  out  I  fol- 
lowed as  best  I  could,  and  was  right  in  the  thick  of  the 
bunch  when  we  neared  the  "Auld  Brig."  And  there  be- 
yond the  Doon  I  saw  Tarn  and  his  mare  in  full  gallop,  and 
the  tail  of  the  mare  in  the  hands  of  the  witch  on  my  side 
of  the  keystone  of  the  bridge.  Everything  then  vanished 
and  another  feeling  came  over  me.  I  saw  the  "  Auld 
Brig  "  and  the  "  New  Brig  "  there,  and  while  I  did  not 
kneel  down  I  came  very  near  doing  so.  I  never  felt  such 
a  thrill  before  or  since  in  any  place.  I  have  been  to  the 
Shakespeare  country  often,  but  my  emotions  were  not 
aroused  there  even  a  little,  and  everybody  seemed  to  be  in 
the  same  condition.  This  Burns  country  is  something 
wonderful.  It  stirs  the  hearts,  the  spirits,  and  the 
imaginations  of  all  travelers.  I  suppose  that  having 
visited  the  inn  you  will  complete  the  work  by  going  over 
the  whole  route  that  Tarn  covered  on  his  way  home.  I 
would  like  to  say  much  more  about  it  but  I  have  not  the 
time.  I  am  glad  to  hear  that  you  are  in  growing  good 
health. 

Rev.  William  Morrison, 

London,  England. 


An  Extorted  Marriage  Fee 

November  19,  1912. 

Dear  Sir:     I  have  received  your  letter  of  November 
18th  complaining  that  an  Alderman  on  marrying  you  the 

112 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

day  before  at  his  house  demanded  $20  of  you  as  his  fee, 
and  that  you  paid  him,  for  the  reason  that  it  would  have 
mortified  you  too  much  to  make  a  protest  in  the  presence 
of  your  bride  and  other  ladies  who  were  present.  Of 
course  the  Alderman  committed  a  great  outrage,  and  he 
no  doubt  knew  that  you  would  pay  him  sooner  than  dis- 
pute with  him  openly.  He  had  no  right  to  charge  you 
anything.  I  receive  many  letters  of  a  similar  kind.  My 
advice  to  you  all  is  to  go  to  clergymen  to  be  married,  and 
then  you  will  be  treated  properly.  I  do  not  by  this  mean 
to  say  that  all  of  the  Aldermen  would  treat  you  as  this 
Alderman  did,  but  unfortunately  some  of  them  would. 
You  say  it  was  all  the  money  you  had  with  you,  and  that 
you  expected  to  use  it  for  immediate  expenses  with  your 
bride.  I  certainly  sympathize  with  you.  If  someone  had 
held  you  up  in  the  street  and  taken  it  away  from  you  it 
would  not  have  been  worse.  You  may  sue  the  Alderman 
to  get  your  money  back,  but  if  you  do  he  will  no  doubt 
say  you  made  him  a  voluntary  present  of  the  $20,  and  who 
knows,  the  judge  or  jury  may  believe  him. 

Kai  Brodersen,  Esq., 

New  York  City. 


Noise 

December  9,  1912. 

Dear  Mr.  Davis:  You  complain  to  me  of  the  clock 
on  the  Metropolitan  Building.  You  want  me  to  stop  it. 
You  say  it  strikes  4  times  on  the  quarter,  8  times  on  the 
half,  12  times  on  the  three-quarters,  and  16  times  on  the 
hour,  making  40  times  every  hour,  or  210  times  from  8 
A.  M.  to  12  noon  every  day.  I  am  sorry  for  you.  But 
really  does  the  clock  make  as  much  noise  as  Dr.  Park- 
hurst  does?  You  know  we  all  have  to  bear  with  some- 
thing, and  I  am  willing  to  bear  my  share  of  it. 

Frank  L.  Davis,  Esq., 

New  York  City. 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

Why  Did  You  Not  Write  to  Dr.  Parkhurst 
or  Rabbi  Wise? 

Dec.  11, 1912. 

Dear  Emelie:  Your  letter  directed  to  Santa  Glaus, 
New  York  City,  has  been  delivered  to  me,  since  you  also 
wrote  my  name  on  the  corner  of  the  envelope.  You  tell 
me  all  your  troubles  and  poverty,  and  how  you  hope  that 
something  will  be  in  your  stocking  on  Christmas  morn- 
ing. I  should  not  be  a  bit  surprised  if  that  happens.  I 
wish  I  could  have  Santa  Claus  put  something  in  every 
little  stocking  in  the  land.  But  why  did  you  not  write 
to  the  Reverend  Mr.  Parkhurst,  or  the  Reverend  Rabbi 
Wise,  instead  of  to  me?  Do  you  not  know  even  way  down 
in  Mississippi  that  according  to  their  own  statements  they 
are  the  good  men  here,  and  that  I  am  a  bad  one  ? 

Miss  Emelie  Wilson, 

Landon,  Miss. 

ff  Thinks  He  Is  Pious  When  He  Is  Only  Bilious  " 

December  12,  1912. 

Dear  Sir :  I  thank  you  for  the  good- will  of  your  let- 
ter. You  advise  me  to  "  pay  no  attention  to  Dr.  Park- 
hurst "  and  harsh  people  like  him.  When  did  I  ever  pay 
any  attention  to  him  or  them,  or  even  to  the  Reverend 
Rabbi  Wise,  except  now  and  then  to  say  a  jovial  word  or 
two  about  them,  to  make  them  feel  good?  Yes,  the  Rev- 
erend Parkhurst  began  at  me  right  after  I  became  Mayor 
and  has  continued  ever  since.  He  condemned  me  because 
I  did  not  prevent  the  pictures  of  that  prize  fight  out  West 
over  two  years  ago  from  being  exhibited  in  the  theatres, 
although  I  had  no  lawful  power  to  do  so.  On  other  pages 
of  the  newspaper  in  which  he  then  wrote  and  still  writes 
a  daily  column,  the  pictures  of  the  fighters  as  they  went 
through  the  fight  were  exhibited  in  the  most  repulsive 
and  naked  form,  day  by  day,  with  other  nude  and  nasty 
pictures.  But  he  did  not  object  to  that.  He  stuck  to  his 

114 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

$5,000  a  year  job  of  writing  his  daily  column.  He  con- 
tinues to  do  so,  although  his  daily  article  is  often,  or  most 
of  the  time,  cheek  by  jowl  with  such  pictures,  not  to  men- 
tion other  obscenities.  But  we  should  not  condemn  him 
on  this  score  offhand.  For  it  may  be  that  when  he  takes 
his  newspaper  home  at  night  he  only  reads  his  own  column, 
and  does  not  learn  of  the  rest  of  its  contents.  Or  it  may 
be  that  his  wife  does  not  permit  this  newspaper  in  her 
home,  as  is  the  case  with  so  many  other  good  wives.  And 
therefore  he  may  see  only  his  own  column.  Dr.  Parkhurst 
does  not  want  to  help.  He  wants  to  quarrel.  And  yet, 
I  have  no  ill-will  against  him.  I  would  give  him  a  boost 
any  day  to  help  him  to  Heaven,  if  that  be  what  he  is  after 
in  abusing  me.  We  must  not  let  his  rancor  and  uncharity 
enter  or  influence  our  souls.  We  should  be  charitable  to 
him  and  succor  him  and  try  to  reform  and  lift  him  up. 
You  say  he  has  sold  himself  out  to  this  sensational  news- 
paper, and  is  hired  to  write  against  me  as  he  does.  Even 
so,  we  should  not  have  ill-will  against  him,  but  only  charity 
and  good-will.  When  a  man  hires  himself  out  he  must 
obey  orders  or  quit.  And  he  may  be  able  by  some  species 
of  casuistry  to  convince  himself  that  he  is  doing  right  when 
every  one  else  sees  that  he  is  uncharitable,  unkind  and 
doing  wrong.  Who  knows,  and  who  will  be  first  to  cast  a 
stone  at  him?  Judge  not  lest  ye  be  judged.  We  must  look 
upon  him  in  charity  and  kindness.  Yes,  he  puts  his  picture 
at  the  head  of  the  daily  column  he  writes.  It  is  true  that 
it  is  painful  to  see  such  a  thing  in  a  clergyman.  But  he 
evidently  thinks  he  is  a  very  handsome  fellow,  and  prints 
his  picture  at  the  head  of  his  column  because  he  thinks  we 
are  all  of  his  opinion  about  it,  and  dote  and  feast  our  eyes 
on  it  the  same  as  he  does.  He  therefore  thinks  he  is  giv- 
ing us  pleasure  in  exhibiting  his  picture  for  us  to  look  at 
it.  So  we  must  be  kind  and  forbear  with  him  in  this  also. 
It  is  true  that  we  cannot  imagine  Jesus  doing  such  a  thing 
if  He  were  here.  He  would  not  hire  Himself  out  to  a 
sensational  newspaper,  and  in  addition  put  His  picture 
at  the  head  of  His  column.  Much  less  would  He  write 

115 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

unkind  and  uncharitable  things.  His  great  heart  would 
go  out  to  all  of  us,  and  especially  those  of  us  who,  like  you 
and  me,  are  sinners.  Did  you  ever  think  of  that?  But 
still  we  must  be  kind  and  charitable  to  Dr.  Parkhurst.  No 
doubt  he  thinks  he  is  a  good  man,  and  that  is  an  addi- 
tional reason  why  we  should  be  kind  and  charitable  to  him. 
To  think  one's  self  good,  or  better  than  others,  is  a  mental 
trait  which  is  hard  to  overcome  by  those  who  are  afflicted 
with  it.  It  is  even  reckoned  a  disease  among  physicians 
and  has  a  name.  That  is  an  additional  reason  why  we 
should  forbear  and  overlook.  And  you  know  there  are 
people  who  think  they  are  pious  when  they  are  only 
bilious. 

Edward  Hillin,  Esq., 

New  York  City. 


Scattering  Vice 

December  16,  1912. 

My  Dear  Mr.  Mayor :  Your  letter  of  December  14th, 
asking  for  a  full  copy  of  my  address  about  vice  and  crime 
before  the  New  York  University,  is  at  hand.  I  have  no 
copy  except  as  it  appeared  in  the  newspapers,  and  you 
seem  to  have  that  already.  There  are  a  growing  number 
who  think  that  unfortunate  women  should  be  licensed  and 
regulated.  I  do  not  believe  it.  I  do  not  think  that  any 
good  has  come  of  such  regulation  anywhere.  How  are 
you  going  to  make  them  come  forward  for  a  license,  to 
start  with?  And  then  what  good  would  the  license  do? 
Some  say  you  might  check  disease  thereby.  My  informa- 
tion is  that  that  kind  of  disease  is  just  as  rife  in  the  places 
in  Europe  where  these  women  are  licensed  and  inspected 
as  in  England  where  they  are  allowed  to  run  entirely  loose. 
Is  not  that  the  fact?  Our  legislators  passed  a  law  a  few 
years  ago  requiring  that  all  of  these  women  arrested  and 
brought  into  the  courts  should  be  medically  inspected,  but 
our  courts  promptly  declared  the  act  unconstitutional,  as 

116 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

infringing  on  the  liberty  of  the  citizen.  You  know  our 
courts  have  the  habit  of  doing  that  sort  of  thing.  Nor  do 
I  believe  that  the  law  prescribing  districts  for  such  women 
to  live  in  would  be  successful.  How  are  you  going  to 
make  the  women  go  there  and  live  there?  Moreover,  the 
men  would  not  be  seen  crossing  the  line  of  that  district. 
Everybody  would  point  at  them.  The  natural  tendency 
of  these  women  is  to  congregate  in  districts,  and  no  law  is 
needed  for  that  purpose.  But  so  soon  as  you  fix  a  dis- 
trict for  them  by  law,  men  will  be  ashamed  to  be  seen  going 
there,  and  of  course  the  women  will  not  stay  there  in  that 
case.  I  suppose  that  what  the  Mayors  of  cities  should  do 
is  to  see  that  they  are  not  driven  out  of  the  districts  in 
which  they  naturally  congregate,  and  scattered  all  over 
the  city,  as  Parkhurst  did  with  the  women  here  some 
years  ago.  From  a  limited  number  of  houses  he  scattered 
them  into  thousands  of  flats  and  dwelling  houses  all  over 
the  city,  to  the  great  scandal  and  misleading  of  women  and 
girls  living  therein.  The  licensing  of  gamblers  is  equally 
objectionable.  If  you  license  a  limited  number,  what 
would  all  the  others  do?  You  would  have  just  as  much 
trouble  to  keep  them  from  running  gambling  houses  as 
you  have  now.  It  is  easy  for  people  to  talk,  Mr.  Mayor, 
but  you  and  I  have  to  do  the  best  we  can  under  the  con- 
ditions which  surround  us.  These  few  virtuous  people 
who  think  that  we  ought  to  be  able  to  make  everybody  as 
virtuous  as  they  are,  or  rather  as  virtuous  as  they  think  or 
pretend  they  are,  all  at  once,  would  make  the  worst  fist  of 
all  dealing  with  the  matter  if  they  had  the  chance.  But  I 
do  not  think  they  will  ever  be  given  a  chance.  People 
have  too  much  sense  for  that.  While  we  have  gambling 
and  other  vices  here,  and  some  graft,  I  suppose  you  know 
that  this  city  is  the  most  orderly  and  decent  among  the 
large  cities  of  the  world.  Certain  degenerate  newspapers 
and  others  hold  it  up  as  the  contrary,  but  they  deceive 
nobody. 

Hon.  George  J.  Karb, 

Mayor,  Columbus,  O. 

117 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

"  The  Vestibule  of  Hell "  and  "  Scamps  " 

December  16,  1912. 

Reverend  and  Dear  Sir :  I  thank  you  for  sending  me 
the  address  to  your  congregation  regarding  conditions  in 
Greenpoint,  Brooklyn.  I  am  aware  that  your  congrega- 
tion is  very  large,  and  it  is  due  to  you  that  I  take  notice 
of  what  you  say.  I  agree  with  you  that  the  people  of 
Greenpoint  are  not  given  over  to  vice  and  crime  and  dis- 
order. The  very  few  preachers  who  are  saying  that  are 
mere  notoriety  seekers,  and,  as  a  rule,  minister  to  empty 
benches,  as  might  be  expected.  People  go  willingly  to 
hear  those  who  have  the  great  charity  and  love  of  Jesus  in 
their  hearts.  There  are  bad  people  in  Greenpoint,  the 
same  as  everywhere  else,  and  we  must  do  the  best  we  can 
to  turn  them  from  their  evil  ways.  I  see  one  clergyman 
over  in  your  immediate  neighborhood  says  that  Brooklyn 
is  the  "  vestibule  of  hell."  These  are  his  words.  What  a 
charitable  soul  he  must  be.  And  yet  the  truth  is,  shown 
by  the  records,  that  Brooklyn  is  freer  from  crime  and  vice 
than  any  other  equal  population  in  the  world.  Its  entire 
criminal  business  above  the  grade  of  petty  offences  is  dis- 
posed of  by  one  criminal  court.  Just  think  of  that  being 
true  of  1,750,000  people.  And  yet  there  are  some  scamps 
who  call  Brooklyn  the  "  vestibule  of  hell."  But  we  must 
be  charitable  and  kind  to  them,  and  try  to  reclaim  them 
from  their  uncharity,  and  their  propensity  to  bear  false 
witness. 

Rt.  Rev.  P.  F.  O'Hare, 

Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 


Segregating  Vice 

December  17,  1912. 

Dear  Sir:     I  have  read  your  letter  of  December  16th, 
with  great  interest,  and  I  thank  you  for  it.    But  you  must 

118 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

remember  that  the  mere  passing  of  a  law  does  not  do  a 
thing.  It  is  one  thing  to  pass  a  law,  and  quite  another  to 
enforce  it.  The  things  which  you  advocate  could  not  be 
done  unless  a  new  law  were  passed.  Neither  could  they 
be  done  if  such  a  law  were  passed.  You  would  have  a 
law  that  all  prostitutes  should  live  in  a  certain  section  of 
the  city,  to  be  definitely  bounded  and  set  apart.  Will  you 
be  good  enough  to  let  me  know  how  you  would  get  the 
women  to  go  there  and  live  there?  Who  would  pursue 
them  and  catch  them  and  put  them  there?  And  how 
strong  a  guard  would  you  need  around  the  district  to  keep 
them  there  when  you  got  them  there?  And  if  such  a  dis- 
trict were  bounded  and  established,  do  you  think  men 
would  go  there?  Do  you  not  know  that  they  would  be 
ashamed  to  be  seen  going  there?  Every  one  would  point 
at  them  and  laugh.  And  if  the  men  did  not  go  there  cer- 
tainly the  women  would  not  stay  there.  This  thing  has 
been  tried  in  different  places  in  Europe  and  has  always 
proved  a  failure.  I  think  it  was  tried  the  last  time  in 
Rome,  Italy.  I  have  been  told  there  is  such  a  district  in 
Hamburg.  If  there  be  one  bounded  and  established  by 
law,  I  feel  certain  it  is  only  for  sailors  and  their  trulls.  It 
might  be  that  people  of  no  shame  or  feeling  would  resort 
to  such  a  district,  but  the  number  of  such  people  is  limited. 
There  seems  to  be  a  large  number  of  people  who  think  that 
all  you  need  is  to  pass  a  law  that  the  thing  be  done.  And 
then  you  advocate  that  all  such  women  be  medically  ex- 
amined once  a  week.  Well,  if  you  could  keep  them  all  in 
that  district  by  force,  it  may  be  that  you  could  examine 
them  all  in  the  same  way.  But  you  cannot  keep  them 
there.  How  then  are  you  going  to  find  them  to  examine 
them?  Do  you  think  they  would  all  present  themselves 
voluntarily  on  a  public  notice  ?  We  did  have  a  law  passed 
here  a  few  years  ago  that  such  women  brought  into  the 
courts  should  be  medically  examined  and  treated,  but  our 
highest  court  declared  that  law  unconstitutional  and  void. 
Have  you  ever  thought  of  all  the  difficulties  in  the  way? 


119 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

No  one  is  fit  to  participate  in  government  who  has  not 
studied  government  and  law.  You  might  as  well  call  a 
cobbler  in  to  cut  your  leg  off  instead  of  employing  a  sur- 
geon. You  also  want  a  law  locating  all  gambling  houses 
in  the  same  way.  But  you  would  have  just  as  much  dif- 
ficulty to  carry  out  that  law.  The  gamblers  would 
do  just  as  they  do  now,  run  gambling  houses  secretly 
wherever  they  can,  and  leave  the  police  to  find 
them  out  and  prosecute  them.  And  your  law  pro- 
viding for  the  licensing  of  a  limited  number  of 
gamblers,  and  that  no  other  gambling  houses  should  be 
permitted,  would  be  equally  a  dead  letter.  Those  who 
could  not  get  licenses  would  do  just  what  gamblers  are 
doing  now,  namely,  open  up  secret  places  and  take  their 
chances  with  the  police,  and  corrupt  the  police.  And  in 
the  same  way  I  might  follow  you  through  all  your  recom- 
mendations. Of  course  you  are  entirely  honest  about  them 
all,  but  you  could  not  enforce  them  by  the  mere  passing 
of  a  law,  nor  could  such  a  law  be  enforced.  There  is  no 
more  unwise  thing  in  the  world  than  to  pass  laws  which 
cannot  be  enforced. 

B.  F.  Schwartberg,  Esq., 

Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 


Washington    and   Lincoln 

December  24,  1912. 

Reverend  and  Dear  Sir :  I  spent  two  delightful  even- 
ings reading  your  recent  book,  "  Washington  and  Lin- 
coln." Once  I  began  I  could  not  lay  it  aside  until  I  had 
read  it  through.  I  have  always  had  a  fondness  for  those 
books  which  give  us  what  I  may  call  the  philosophy  of 
history.  I  wish  you  had  the  leisure  to  take  this  book  as  a 
skeleton  and  fill  it  out,  for  it  is  evident  you  have  the  phil- 
osophical mind  necessary  for  that  kind  of  writing. 

120 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

The  reading  of  your  book  stimulates  many  reflections. 
Washington  and  Lincoln  were  great  and  true  men,  but  it 
is  easy  to  exaggerate  the  greatness  of  individual  men.  No 
man,  or  mountain  or  even  planet  seems  large  when  you 
think  of  God.  There  is  much  of  halo  around  the  names 
of  Washington  and  Lincoln.  The  great  eras  in  which 
they  lived  are  epitomized  or  apotheosized  in  them.  And 
in  that  way  they  survive  as  great.  That  is  what  made 
Elizabeth  so  great,  or  to  be  called  so  great.  The  great 
men,  the  great  deeds,  the  great  events  which  surrounded 
her  made  her  great. 

This  is  more  true  of  Washington  and  Lincoln  than  of 
any  other  two  characters  in  history  of  whom  I  can  now 
think.  But  when  you  brush  aside  the  halo  and  make  allow- 
ance for  the  reflected  greatness,  a  great  man  remains  in 
the  case  of  each. 

The  general  impression  of  Washington  is  largely 
mythical.  We  think  of  him  as  a  good  man,  who  told  the 
exact  truth  always,  and  never  got  angry,  and  suffered 
everything  patiently,  and  was  of  great  justice  and  ac- 
curacy of  judgment,  but  not  a  genius  or  of  extraordinary 
ability. 

This  is  all  in  the  main  true  of  him ;  but  as  a  matter  of 
fact  he  was  of  warm  blood  and  prone  to  passion,  as  his 
contemporaries  agree.  He  is  even  known  to  have  sworn 
like  a  trooper  at  times.  And  his  face  was  pitted,  and  he 
had  decayed  teeth,  and  other  physical  imperfections. 

But  when  we  remember  that  he  was  Commander  in 
Chief  of  the  Colonial  armies  in  the  Revolution,  and  con- 
sider the  vast  extent  of  that  conflict,  and  the  things  which 
he  did  and  suffered,  and  the  patience,  vigilance,  and  pru- 
dence which  he  exercised,  we  have  no  doubt  that  he  was  a 
great  man. 

He  was  great  even  in  his  succession  of  defeats.  He 
looked  larger  after  each,  even  to  most  of  his  contempo- 
raries. No  severer  test  than  this  can  be  applied  to  a  man. 

The  theatre  of  that  war  was  one  of  the  largest  ever 
known  in  the  world.  Its  strategy  and  logistics  involved 

121 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

the  longest  distances  of  any  war  since  Alexander  went 
into  Asia.  Think  of  a  British  column  coming  down  from 
Canada  by  the  Mohawk  Valley  to  meet  at  the  Hudson 
River  another  British  column  coming  around  from 
Canada  by  Lake  Champlain  and  Lake  George,  the 
strategy  being  to  take  possession  of  the  Hudson  River 
and  thereby  cut  New  England  off  from  the  other  colonies. 
It  was  defeated  by  the  check  at  Oriskany  and  the  sur- 
render of  Burgoyne  at  Saratoga.  Large  strategy  was 
met  by  large  strategy. 

Think  of  the  distances  covered  by  the  two  columns  that 
made  the  attack  on  Quebec,  one  going  by  the  lakes  and  the 
other  way  across  Maine.  The  prisoners  surrendered  by 
Burgoyne  at  Saratoga  were  sent  to  Boston,  and  thence 
way  down  to  Charlottesville,  Va. 

And,  at  the  end,  not  to  mention  the  battles  fought  and 
the  immense  distances  covered  meanwhile,  South  and 
North,  the  troops  of  New  York,  Pennsylvania,  and  New 
England  marched  way  down  to  Yorktown  in  Virginia  and 
there  ended  the  war  by  the  surrender  of  Cornwallis. 

These  are  only  some  instances  which  show  the  great- 
ness of  the  War  of  the  Revolution.  To  those  who  con- 
sider what  war  is  and  what  strategy  is  in  war,  Washing- 
ton never  appears  greater  than  during  the  two  long  years 
in  which  he  sat  down  with  his  4,000  or  less  ragged  troops 
at  the  Highlands  of  the  Hudson  and  stood  guard  over  that 
great  river  which  held  and  united  the  New  England 
colonies  with  the  other  colonies  and  the  loss  of  which  would 
have  been  fatal  to  the  Revolutionary  cause. 

He  looked  only  to  the  result.  He  betrayed  no  anx- 
iety for  fame,  much  less  to  do  brilliant  things  for  the  sake 
of  fame.  If  the  best  strategy  was  to  sit  still  he  was  will- 
ing to  sit  still.  From  whatever  aspect  we  view  him  during 
the  long  struggle  we  still  see  his  greatness. 

When  we  look  at  him  we  find  that  he  looked  like  other 
men  and  had  weaknesses.  But  all  the  time  there  was  a 
saving  grace  of  patience  in  the  man  which  balanced  all  his 
other  qualities,  good  and  bad,  strong  and  weak,  and  made 

122 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

out  of  them  all  one  of  the  most  perfectly  poised  charac- 
ters of  history. 

He  fully  illustrates  the  saying  that  patience  is  the 
possession  of  great  souls. 

Then  when  it  was  all  over  the  simple  man  still  re- 
mained. He  was  entirely  content  to  go  back  to  his  farm 
and  his  slaves  and  his  whisky  distilleries  and  go  to  work. 

His  character  also  appears  to  have  been  developed 
before  he  became  General  of  the  armies.  He  had  had  con- 
siderable military  experience,  had  marched  long  distances, 
and  fought  as  a  soldier  before  the  Revolutionary  War. 
No  one  can  contemplate  him  on  the  march  with  and  at  the 
awful  defeat  of  Braddock  without  being  impressed  with 
the  greatness  of  his  character. 

And  eight  or  nine  years  after  the  Independence  was 
achieved,  when  he  was  called  from  his  retirement  to  help  in 
the  formation  of  the  National  Constitution  and  to  be 
President,  his  judgment  and  wisdom  were  still  equal  to 
every  test. 

He  was  not  the  equal  in  knowledge  of  history, 
economics,  and  government  of  the  men  who  surrounded 
him;  but  after  he  had  listened  patiently  to  their  counsels 
his  judgment  was  safe  and  sound. 

I  do  not  perceive  that  he  was  a  man  of  instinct.  Nor 
does  he  seem  to  have  had  a  single  superstition — one  of  the 
weaknesses  of  great  minds.  Nothing  came  fully  to  him 
except  by  advice  and  reflection. 

The  character  of  Lincoln  was  different. 

He  also  lived  in  a  great  time,  amid  great  events,  and 
surrounded  by  great  men,  who  did  great  things,  all  of 
which  is  epitomized  or  apotheosized  in  him. 

But  when  we  look  to  see  the  actual  things  which  he  per- 
sonally did  we  perceive  that  his  life  was  in  that  respect  a 
contrast  to  that  of  Washington. 

He  signed  the  Emancipation  Proclamation.  That  was 
a  momentous  fact  in  history.  But  it  had  to  be  almost 
extorted  from  him.  And  the  Russian  Emperor  had  done 
the  like  not  long  before. 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

There  were  those  who  saw  early,  even  from  the  be- 
ginning, that  that  measure  would  consolidate  and  energize 
those  devoted  to  carrying  on  the  war.  But  he  was  slow 
to  see  it.  And  yet  he  did  finally  see  it,  and  do  it  and,  it 
may  be,  at  the  best  time,  namely,  in  the  fullness  of  gesta- 
tion and  time. 

Unlike  the  case  of  Washington,  those  around  him, 
and  especially  members  of  his  cabinet,  did  not  greatly  re- 
spect him.  Many  of  them  were  certain  that  they  knew 
much  more  than  he  did.  Some  of  them  called  him  an  old 
fool,  others  a  buffoon. 

He  was  blamed  for  every  blunder  or  failure  of  his 
Generals  in  the  field. 

The  newspapers,  including  practically  all  of  them  in 
New  York  City,  condemned  him  as  incompetent  and 
small. 

His  Generals  ridiculed  him  and  resented  his  inter- 
ference. McClellan  showed  contempt  of  him.  Even 
Grant  smiled  at  his  military  advice.  In  his  Memoirs 
Grant  tells  us  how  when  he  had  been  called  to  Washing- 
ton to  take  charge  of  all  the  armies,  and  especially  the 
Army  of  the  Potomac,  Lincoln  brought  out  an  old  map 
on  which  he  had  marked  the  positions  held  by  the  troops 
on  both  sides  in  Virginia,  and  pointing  out  two  streams 
which  ran  into  the  James  (or  the  Potomac?)  advised 
Grant  to  put  his  army  between  these  two  streams, 
and  with  his  flanks  thus  protected,  move  along  against 
Lee's  army.  Grant  dryly  says  that  he  remained  silent, 
Lincoln  not  perceiving  that  the  two  streams  would  be  as 
much  of  a  protection  to  Lee's  flanks  as  to  his. 

Grant  says  he  would  not  reveal  his  plans  to  Lincoln 
for  the  reason  that  he  was  so  kind-hearted  that  some  one 
would  pick  them  out  of  him,  and  in  that  way  they  could 
become  known  to  Lee. 

But  he  had  more  philosophy  than  all  of  his  advisers 
and  Generals  and  critics  put  together.  And  herein  was 
his  greatness. 

His  name  will  live  principally  because  of  his  literary 

124 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

"**^PP* 

ability  and  his  philosophy,  both  of  which  were  tran- 
scendent. 

The  letter  he  wrote  to  the  woman  who  had  lost  five 
sons  in  the  war,  his  speech  at  Gettysburg,  and  some  parts 
of  his  second  inaugural  would  make  the  literary  and 
philosophical  reputation  of  any  man. 

His  philosophy  was  constant  and  shone  through  all  his 
acts. 

He  died  at  a  fortunate  time  for  his  fame.  What  a  dif- 
ferent figure  might  he  be  to-day  if  he  had  lived  to  go 
through  all  the  passions  of  the  next  four  years  of  the 
reconstruction  period. 

But  even  in  that  case  his  philosophy  would  in  after 
years  vindicate  him  and  reveal  his  true  greatness.  But  it 
would  take  time. 

I  note  the  setting  you  give  to  the  adoption  of  the  Dec- 
laration of  Independence,  including  the  incident  of  Frank- 
lin saying  facetiously  to  his  associates  that  if  they  did  not 
hang  together  they  would  hang  separately. 

But  it  has  always  seemed  to  me  that  that  event  was  not 
as  heroic  as  generally  considered.  If  it  had  occurred  at 
the  beginning  of  the  Revolution  it  would  be  one  of  the 
most  heroic  things  in  history. 

But  when  we  remember  that  Lexington  and  Concord 
and  Bunker  Hill  and  Ticonderoga  had  been  fought  more 
than  a  year  before,  that  the  people  of  all  of  the  Colonies  had 
deposed  their  royal  Governors,  and  set  up  Governments 
of  their  own,  that  Canada  had  been  invaded  and  Quebec 
assaulted  by  the  Colonists,  that  Howe  had  evacuated  Bos- 
ton— that,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  every  Colony  was  at  the 
time  independent  and  governing  itself — the  Declaration 
of  Independence  by  the  Congress  of  the  Colonies  ceases  to 
have  that  aspect  of  heroism  which  we  generally  attribute 
to  it.  The  Declaration  of  Independence  only  recognized 
an  existing  condition. 

And  when  we  come  to  the  making  of  the  National  Con- 
stitution, it  seems  to  me  that  that  work  has  been  the  sub- 
ject of  exaggeration  also. 

125 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

You  quote  the  alleged  remark  of  Gladstone  that  the 
American  Constitution  was  "  the  most  wonderful  work 
ever  struck  off  at  a  given  time  by  the  brain  and  purpose 
of  man." 

But  it  was  not  struck  off  at  a  given  time.  On  the  con- 
trary, the  different  Colonial  or  State  constitutions,  which 
had  been  framed  with  wisdom  and  care,  one  after  another, 
during  a  generation,  or  nearly  so,  served  as  a  model  for  it. 

Excepting  the  separation  of  the  National  powers 
from  the  State  powers,  and  the  conferring  on  the  National 
Government  exclusively  those  things  which  pertain  to  in- 
ternational sovereignty,  I  do  not  recall  anything  in  it,  or 
any  principle  in  it,  which  the  framers  of  it  did  not  have 
right  at  hand  in  the  state  constitutions  and  bills  of  rights. 

That  nice  and  complete  subdivision  of  the  powers  of 
government  among  the  three  branches  of  government,  the 
executive,  the  legislative,  and  the  judicial,  which  has  been 
so  much  extolled,  was  common  to  all  of  the  State  con- 
stitutions and  bills  of  rights  and  was  expressed  therein 
in  the  most  scientific  and  felicitous  manner. 

It  is  enough  to  refer  to  the  Virginia  and  Massachu- 
setts constitutions  and  bills  of  rights  as  samples  of  them 
all. 

This  separation  of  the  powers  of  government  was 
already  expressed  in  the  Massachusetts  Bill  of  Rights  in 
a  manner  which  has  never  been  excelled,  viz. : 

"  In  the  Government  of  this  Commonwealth,  the 
legislative  department  shall  never  exercise  the  ex- 
ecutive and  judicial  powers,  or  either  of  them;  the 
executive  shall  never  exercise  the  legislative  and 
judicial  powers,  or  either  of  them;  the  judicial 
shall  never  exercise  the  legislative  and  executive 
powers,  or  either  of  them;  to  the  end  it  may  be  a 
government  of  laws  and  not  of  men." 

You  help  to  do  justice  to  Thomas  Paine. 
What  a  strange  thing  it  is  that  that  extraordinary  man 
was  so  long  set  down  as  an  atheist.  Some  people  still  think 

126 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

he  was  an  atheist.  And  yet  no  man  ever  had  a  fuller  be- 
lief in  the  existence  of  God,  or  a  greater  reliance  upon  him. 

He  was  an  infidel,  it  is  true.  But  an  infidel  may  not 
be  an  atheist.  A  Unitarian  is  an  infidel.  Every  one  is 
an  infidel  who  does  not  believe  in  all  the  fundamental  doc- 
trines of  Christianity. 

We  are  not  so  prone  to  call  people  infidels  as  we  once 
were.  Most  of  us  are  now  quite  content  with  a  man  who 
can  say  that  he  sincerely  believes  in  the  existence  and  good- 
ness of  God.  If  he  finds  it  difficult  or  impossible  to  be- 
lieve that  there  are  three  Gods  or  three  persons  in  the  one 
God,  and  the  like,  he  is  looked  upon  with  charity,  at  least. 

You  make  some  allusion  to  the  morality  of  the  great 
men  of  the  period  of  Washington  and  Jefferson  and  Ham- 
ilton and  Franklin.  You  specify  Jefferson  and  Franklin. 

Thomas  Hamilton,  the  young  Englishman  who 
traveled  through  this  country  and  wrote  about  it  in  1832 
or  thereabout,  sums  up  all  the  political  scandal  about  Jef- 
ferson as  follows,  viz. : 

'  The  moral  character  of  Jefferson  was  repul- 
sive. Continually  puling  about  liberty,  equality, 
and  the  degrading  curse  of  slavery,  he  brought  his 
own  children  to  the  hammer  and  made  money  of 
his  debauchery." 

And  he  goes  on  to  say  that  even  at  his  death  Jefferson 
did  not  by  his  will  free  his  numerous  offspring,  and  that 
a  slave  daughter  of  his  was  afterward  purchased  by  a  so- 
ciety of  gentlemen  at  auction  in  New  Orleans  to  testify 
their  admiration  for  the  statesmanship  of  her  father.  And 
he  quotes  that  line  so  often  bandied  about  concerning  Jef- 
ferson during  his  lifetime,  namely,  "  Who  dreamed  of 
freedom  in  a  slave's  embrace." 

But  I  think  the  world  now  knows  that  this  was  mainly 
the  slander  of  political  enemies.  It  is  certain  that  it  did 
Jefferson  no  harm  at  the  polls,  from  which  we  may  well 
infer  that  it  was  not  generally  believed. 

127 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

Franklin  did  have  a  natural  son,  and  took  to  wife  a 
woman  who  was  the  wife  of  a  man  who  had  deserted  her 
but  was  still  living. 

But  some  allowance  has  to  be  made  in  such  things  in 
new  countries  where  society  has  not  yet  assumed  a  settled 
form. 

You  also  say  of  Franklin  that  his  writings  can  hardly 
be  published  to-day  unless  in  an  expurgated  edition.  I 
do  not  understand  this.  I  do  not  see  a  thing  in  them  to 
expurgate.  I  am  aware  that  some  have  expurgated  his 
autobiography,  but  the  things  which  they  cut  out  seem  to 
me  the  very  things  most  necessary  for  our  boys  to  read. 
And  they  are  expressed  in  words  chaste  and  wholly  inof- 
fensive. 

May  I  call  your  attention  to  an  error  in  your  book. 
You  say  that  Chief  Justice  Taney  said  in  his  opinion  in 
the  Dred  Scott  case  that  "  negroes  were  so  far  inferior 
that  they  had  no  rights  which  the  white  man  was  bound  to 
respect." 

This  is  an  old  error.  It  has  been  repeated  so  often, 
and  in  such  trustworthy  places,  that  it  is  not  extraordinary 
that  you  give  credence  to  it.  It  was  repeated  by  the 
political  orators  all  over  the  country  in  the  Fremont  cam- 
paign, and  again  in  the  first  Lincoln  campaign,  and 
thousands  of  times  has  it  been  written  in  newspapers  and 
books. 

And  yet  there  is  not  a  word  of  truth  in  it.  Chief  Jus- 
tice Taney  never  said  it,  or  anything  like  it. 

In  his  decision  he  speaks  of  the  negro  race  as  "  that  un- 
fortunate race,"  and  gives  a  history  of  their  condition  dur- 
ing the  century  preceding  the  Declaration  of  Independ- 
ence and  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States.  And  the 
words  you  quote  occur  therein.  Let  me  give  the  whole 
passage : 

"It  is  difficult  at  this  day  to  realize  the  state 
of  public  opinion  in  relation  to  that  unfortunate 
race,  which  prevailed  in  the  civilized  and  enlight- 
ened portions  of  the  world  at  the  time  of  the  Decla- 

128 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

ration  of  Independence  and  when  the  Constitution 
of  the  United  States  was  framed  and  adopted.  But 
the  public  history  of  every  European  nation  dis- 
plays it  in  a  manner  too  plain  to  be  mistaken. 
They  had  for  more  than  a  century  before  been  re- 
garded as  beings  of  an  inferior  order,  and  alto- 
gether unfit  to  associate  with  the  white  race,  either 
in  social  or  political  relations;  and  so  far  inferior 
that  they  had  no  rights  which  the  white  man  was 
bound  to  respect;  and  that  the  negro  might  justly 
and  lawfully  be  reduced  to  slavery  for  his  benefit. 
He  was  bought  and  sold,  and  treated  as  an  ordinary 
article  of  merchandise  arid  traffic,  whenever  a  profit 
could  be  made  by  it." 

And  he  adds: 

"  And  in  no  nation  was  this  opinion  more 
firmly  fixed  or  more  uniformly  acted  upon  than 
by  the  English  Government  and  English  people. 
They  not  only  seized  them  on  the  coast  of  Africa 
and  sold  them  or  held  them  in  slavery  for  their  own 
use ;  but  they  took  them  as  ordinary  articles  of  mer- 
chandise to  every  country  where  they  could  make 
a  profit  on  them,  and  were  far  more  extensively 
engaged  in  this  commerce  than  any  other  nation  in 
the  world." 

Instead  of  speaking  of  the  negro  race  as  having  no 
rights  which  the  white  man  was  bound  to  respect,  he  spoke 
of  it  in  charity  and  commiseration,  clearly  revealing  that 
he  was  of  no  such  opinion. 

And  indeed,  at  the  time  of  the  Dred  Scott  decision, 
namely,  in  1856,  the  negro  had  equal  rights  with  the  whites 
in  most  of  the  States  of  the  Union,  and  many  rights  of 
person  and  property  were  secured  to  them  also  in  the 
slave  States. 

At  the  beginning  we  had  slaves  in  the  States  here  in 
the  North.  But  one  State  after  another  freed  its  slaves 

129 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

by  passing  a  statute  for  that  purpose.  They  seem  to 
have  done  it  because  slavery  was  economically  unprofit- 
able in  the  North. 

And  in  a  number  of  States,  as  in  New  York  and 
Pennsylvania,  the  taking  effect  of  these  statutes  was  set 
far  enough  ahead  to  enable  slave  owners  to  bring  their 
slaves  South  and  sell  them  before  the  statute  became 
operative. 

But  I  must  not  go  on  this  way,  or  you  will  find  me 
loquacious.  My  purpose  was  only  to  express  to  you  the 
delight  I  experienced  in  reading  your  book ;  all  the  greater 
on  account  of  my  agreeable  personal  acquaintance  with 
you.  I  hope  it  will  have  a  wide  sale.  It  deserves  it. 
Everybody  in  your  congregation  ought  to  read  it  first,  if 
they  have  not  done  so  already. 

Rev.  Robert  W.  McLaughlin,  Pastor, 

Park  Avenue  Congregational  Church, 

Brooklyn. 


Free  Speech  and  a  Free  Press 

December  27,  1912. 

To  the  Honorable  The  Board  of  Aldermen,  Gentle- 
men: 1  return  disapproved  the  proposed  ordinance,  No. 
89,  entitled,  "  An  ordinance  relative  to  motion  picture 
theatres." 

I  am  constrained  to  do  this  because  of  the  provisions 
therein  creating  a  censorship.  It  is  provided  that  the 
Board  of  Education  shall  appoint  one  or  more  censors  to 
examine  all  motion  pictures  in  advance  and  determine 
whether  they  may  be  exhibited  or  not. 

It  has  hitherto  been  the  understanding  in  this  country 
that  no  censorship  may  be  established  by  law  to  decide  in 
advance  what  may  or  may  not  be  lawfully  printed  or  pub- 
lished. Ours  is  a  government  of  free  speech  and  a  free 
press.  That  is  the  cornerstone  of  free  government.  The 
phrase  "  the  press  "  includes  all  methods  of  expression  by 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

writing  or  pictures.  In  past  ages  there  were  censorships 
to  decide  what  might  be  published,  or  even  believed. 
Every  Christian  denomination  has  at  one  time  or  another 
been  subjected  to  such  censorship.  The  few  were  very 
anxious  not  to  give  freedom  of  speech  or  of  the  press. 
They  thought  the  many  were  not  fit  for  it.  They  therefore 
set  themselves  up  as  censors  and  guardians  over  the  bulk 
of  their  fellow  men.  The  centre  of  thought  was  then 
among  the  few,  and  they  were  very  anxious  to  keep  it 
there.  But  in  the  course  of  time,  in  spite  of  all  opposition, 
the  centre  of  thought  began  to  pass  from  the  few  to  the 
many,  where  it  is  to-day.  It  was  then  that  censorships, 
and  all  interference  with  freedom  of  speech,  of  the  press 
and  of  opinion,  began  to  give  way  by  degrees,  until  in  the 
end  all  of  them,  at  all  events  with  us,  were  abolished.  And 
that  is  now  substantially  true  under  all  free  governments 
throughout  the  world. 

In  our  fundamental  instruments  of  government  in  this 
country,  which  we  call  constitutions,  we  expressly  guaran- 
teed from  the  beginning  free  speech  and  a  free  press,  and 
prohibited  the  passing  of  any  law  abridging  the  same. 
The  provision  in  the  constitution  of  this  state  on  that  sub- 
ject, which  is  substantially  the  same  as  the  like  provision 
in  the  constitution  of  the  United  States,  and  also  of  the 
states  generally,  is  as  follows: 

'  Every  citizen  may  freely  speak,  write,  and 
publish  his  sentiments  on  all  subjects,  being  re- 
sponsible for  the  abuse  of  that  right;  and  no  law 
shall  be  passed  to  restrain  or  abridge  the  liberty  of 
speech  or  of  the  press." 

So  universal  has  been  the  opinion  that  these  constitu- 
tional provisions  abolished  all  censorships  of  the  press, 
and  forbade  them  in  the  future,  that  I  have  been  able  to 
find  only  one  attempt  in  this  country  to  set  up  such  a  cen- 
sorship before  this  one  of  yours.  Our  constitutional  pro- 
vision plainly  is  that  publications  whether  oral,  or  printed, 
or  by  writing,  or  by  pictures,  shall  not  be  restrained  in 

131 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

advance,  but  that  every  one  shall  be  free  to  speak  or  pub- 
lish what  he  sees  fit,  subject  to  being  prosecuted  afterwards 
for  libel,  immorality,  obscenity  or  indecency  therefor. 
There  seems  to  be  a  few  among  us  who  wish  us  to  retrace 
our  steps,  and  resort  to  censorships  again  in  advance  of 
publication,  and  make  it  a  crime  to  publish  anything  not 
permitted  in  advance  by  the  censor.  Do  they  know  what 
they  are  doing?  Do  they  know  anything  of  the  history 
and  literature  of  the  subject?  Do  they  know  that  the 
censorships  of  past  ages  did  immeasurably  more  harm  than 
good?  Do  they  ever  stop  to  think  that  such  censorships 
now  would  do  even  more  harm  than  they  did  in  past  ages, 
in  comparison  with  what  little  good  they  might  possibly 
do  ?  I  do  not  believe  the  people  of  this  country  are  ready 
rto  permit  any  censor  to  decide  in  advance  what  may  be 
published  for  them  to  read,  or  what  pictures  may  be  exhib- 
ited to  them.  Our  laws  forbid  the  publication  of  any 
libelous,  obscene,  indecent,  immoral  or  impure  picture  or 
reading  matter.  Is  not  that  enough?  If  anyone  does  this 
he  commits  a  criminal  offense  and  may  be  punished  there- 
for. 

If  this  ordinance  be  legal,  then  a  similar  ordinance  in 
respect  of  the  newspapers  and  the  theatres  generally  would 
be  legal.  Are  you  of  opinion  that  you  have  any  such 
power  as  that  ?  If  so,  you  should  probably  begin  with  the 
newspapers  and  the  so-called  high-class  theatres.  Once  re- 
vive the  censorship  and  there  is  no  telling  how  far  we  may 
carry  it.  These  moving  picture  shows  are  attended  by  the 
great  bulk  of  the  people,  many  of  whom  cannot  afford  to 
pay  the  prices  charged  by  the  theatres.  They  are  a  solace 
and  an  education  to  them.  Why  are  we  singling  out  these 
people  as  subjects  necessary  to  be  protected  by  a  censor- 
ship ?  Are  they  any  more  in  need  of  protection  by  censor- 
ship than  the  rest  of  the  community?  That  was  once  the 
view  which  prevailed  in  government,  and  there  are  some 
among  us,  ignorant  of  or  untaught  by  past  ages,  who  are 
of  that  view  now.  Are  they  better  than  the  rest  of  us,  or 
worse  ? 

182 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

When  I  became  Mayor  the  denunciation  of  these  mov- 
ing picture  shows  by  a  few  people  was  at  its  highest.  They 
declared  them  schools  of  immorality  They  said  indecent 
and  immoral  pictures  were  being  shown  there.  I  person- 
ally knew  that  was  not  so.  But  I  had  an  official  examina- 
tion made  of  all  the  moving  picture  shows  in  this  city. 
The  result  was  actual  proof  and  an  official  report  that 
there  were  no  obscene  or  immoral  pictures  shown  in  these 
places.  And  that  is  the  truth  now.  Wherefore  then  is 
all  this  zeal  for  censorship  over  these  places? 

The  truth  is  that  the  good,  moral  people  who  go  to 
these  moving  picture  shows,  and  very  often  bring  their 
children  with  them,  would  not  tolerate  the  exhibition  of 
obscene  or  immoral  pictures  there.  A  place  in  which  such 
pictures  were  exhibited  would  soon  be  without  sufficient 
patrons  to  support  it.  At  all  events,  the  criminal  law  is 
ample  to  prevent  the  exhibition  of  such  pictures.  I  have 
asked  these  people  who  are  crying  out  against  the  moving 
picture  shows  to  give  me  an  instance  of  an  obscene  or  im- 
moral picture  being  shown  in  them,  so  that  the  exhibitor 
may  be  prosecuted,  but  they  have  been  unable  to  do  so. 
What  they  insist  on  is  to  have  the  pictures  examined  in 
advance,  and  allowed  or  prohibited.  That  is  what  they 
are  still  doing  in  Russia  with  pictures  and  with  reading 
matter  generally.  Do  they  really  want  us  to  recur  to  that 
system? 

Perhaps  I  should  say  I  understand  that  comparatively 
few  of  your  honorable  body  are  in  favor  of  the  censorship. 
Many  of  you  voted  for  the  whole  ordinance  in  the  belief 
that  the  Mayor  had  the  right  to  veto  the  censorship  pro- 
visions and  let  the  rest  of  the  ordinance  stand.  But  I  find 
that  the  Mayor  may  not  do  that.  The  censorship  pro- 
visions are  not  independent  of  the  rest  of  the  ordinance, 
but  interdependent  and  so  connected  therewith  that  the 
whole  ordinance  must  stand  or  fall  as  a  whole. 

I  trust  you  will  pass  the  ordinance  which  the  com- 
mission prepared.  It  safeguards  these  most  important 

133 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

and    wholesome    places    of    amusement    physically    and 
morally. 

Decides  a  Newspaper  Contest  About  Boiling  Eggs 

And  so  I  am  to  decide  this  great  egg  question,  how  to 
cook  an  egg,  and  how  long  to  cook  it?  First  you  must 
get  the  egg,  a  fresh  egg.  But  where  are  you  going  to  get 
it?  That  is  the  most  difficult  part  of  the  question.  It  is 
a  hard  job.  Call  in  some  one  else  to  decide  that.  Consult 
the  hens.  Hens  sing  in  the  laying  season,  which  some 
people  seem  to  doubt.  If  you  can  get  the  egg  while  the 
hen  is  singing  you  will  be  sure  it  is  fresh.  And  then  about 
cooking  it.  I  see  you  have  brought  it  down  simply  to  a 
question  of  boiling  it.  How  to  boil  it?  I  decide  that  you 
can  only  boil  it  in  boiling  water.  And  how  long?  Why, 
that  is  easy  to  decide — as  long  as  you  like.  If  you  want 
it  as  hard  as  a  bullet,  boil  it  30  minutes.  If  you  want  it 
nice  and  soft,  as  soft  as  the  pates  of  some  people,  you  can 
only  boil  it  a  little  while.  On  that  head  I  decide  in  favor 
of  the  little  girl  who  answered  my  question  in  the  school. 
She  said  that  it  would  take  six  minutes — by  which  she 
meant  that  from  the  time  she  went  to  get  the  egg  until 
she  took  it  out  of  the  pan  cooked,  six  minutes  would  elapse. 
She  was  entirely  right.  And  I  suppose  she  also  meant 
that  you  would  put  the  egg  in  the  water  before  the  water 
boiled,  and  let  the  water  heat  and  begin  to  boil  with  the 
egg  in  it.  I  decide  that  she  was  right  in  that  also.  If 
you  let  the  water  boil,  and  then  throw  the  egg  in,  the 
shock  is  too  great  for  the  egg.  You  see  I  know  a  good 
deal  about  eggs  and  cooking  eggs.  I  am  just  the  right 
one  to  decide  this  egg  question. 

His  Tongue  Hung  in  the  Middle 

January  3,  1913. 

Dear  Sir:  Your  letter  calling  my  attention  to  some 
words  of  Rabbi  Wise,  and  also  giving  me  some  of  his  per- 

134 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

sonal  history,  is  at  hand.  Never  mind  about  Rabbi 
Wise.  He  cannot  stop  his  tongue  from  wagging  at  both 
ends,  for  it  is  hung  in  the  middle.  I  suppose  some  people 
like  to  listen  to  a  man  like  that.  It  is  a  mental  rest  to 
them.  These  rhetoricians  have  all  been  the  same  from 
the  beginning  of  the  world.  '  With  malice  toward  all 
and  charity  toward  none,"  seems  to  be  his  frame  of  tongue, 
and  that  suits  all  who  are  of  the  same  frame  of  mind.  The 
self-sufficient,  all-sufficient,  insufficient  Rabbi  Wise.  How 
is  that?  I  wish  him  a  Happy  New  Year.  He  is  such  a 
pious  and  truthful  man.  I  understand  he  is  a  man  of 
such  firm  faith  that  his  daily  morning  and  evening  prayer 
is  as  follows:  "Oh  God  (if  there  be  a  God)  save  my 
soul  (if  I  have  a  soul) ." 

J.  C.  Brooks,  Esq. 

A  Man  of  Accomplishments 

January  7th,  1913. 

Dear  Mr.  Harris:  Your  letter  about  Rabbi  Wise, 
who  you  say  is  not  a  Rabbi  at  all,  is  at  hand.  The  par- 
ticulars you  give  of  him  are  quite  interesting.  But  I  fear 
you  take  such  blatherskites  too  seriously. 

He  is  a  man  of  vast  and  varied  misinformation,  of 
brilliant  mental  incapacity,  and  of  prodigious  moral  re- 
quirements. 

B.  Harris,  Esq., 

New  York  City. 

Reply  to  a  "Screech" 

January  8th,  1913. 

Reverend  Sir:  Your  letter  complaining  that  the 
Water  Department  is  annoying  you  by  examining  the 
plumbing  of  your  house,  and  requiring  a  leak  to  be  re- 
paired, was  duly  received.  You  say  that  this  course  on 
the  part  of  the  Water  Commissioner  is  (I  quote  you)  "  so 

135 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

positively  annoying,  that  no  decent,  intelligent  citizen  de- 
sires to  own  a  piece  of  tenement  property."  You  also 
say  as  follows:  "  I  ask  you  in  all  fairness  and  justice 
are  you  going  to  allow  this  sort  of  mismanagement  to  con- 
tinue? Can't  you  find  an  intelligent  man  with  common 
sense  to  put  at  the  head  of  the  Water  Department?"  Your 
letter  is  uncharitable  from  beginning  to  end.  And  with- 
out hurting  your  feelings  may  I  add  it  is  what  is  usually 
called  mean.  I  receive  such  letters  now  and  then,  but 
this  is  the  first  one  that  has  come  from  a  clergyman.  Do 
you  know  Mr.  Thompson,  the  head  of  the  Water  Depart- 
ment? Do  you  not  know  that  he  is  conceded  to  be  a  first 
class  man,  and  probably  the  best  Water  Commissioner 
the  city  ever  had?  Why  do  you  try  to  strike  him  behind 
his  back  by  writing  such  a  letter  to  me?  Why  did  you 
not  go  to  him  and  be  fair  and  square  with  him? 

But  I  overlooked  the  uncharitable  tone  of  your  letter, 
and  had  a  careful  examination  made  into  your  case.  I 
am  able  to  report  to  you  that  a  leaking  faucet  was  found 
in  your  house,  that  you  repaired  it,  and  that  your  plumb- 
ing is  now  in  good  condition.  May  I  also  inform  you 
that  Mr.  Thompson  instituted  an  examination  of  the 
plumbing  throughout  the  city  to  prevent  waste  of  water 
by  leaks.  The  result  has  been  a  vast  saving  to  the  city. 
By  this  system  of  inspection  Mr.  Thompson  has  saved  in 
Brooklyn  alone  10,000,000  gallons  daily  since  last  August, 
which,  at  meter  rates,  is  a  saving  of  $922,355.  And  allow 
me  to  add  that  this  was  done  at  a  cost  to  the  city  of  less 
than  $25,000.  In  the  borough  of  Manhattan  over  60,- 
000,000  gallons  a  day  is  being  saved  in  the  same  way  at  a 
like  cost. 

Now  do  you  not  think  you  owe  Mr.  Thompson  an 
apology?  Do  you  not  think  you  ought  to  go  to  him  as 
one  man  goes  to  another,  and  say  a  word  of  commendation 
to  him  instead  of  abusing  him? 

Rev.  Frederick  J.  Keech, 

Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 

136 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

Tribute  to  Motherhood 

January  8,  1913. 

Dear  Mr.  Riess:  I  am  in  receipt  of  your  letter  in- 
forming me  that  your  father-in-law  and  your  mother-in- 
law,  aged  eighty-six  and  eighty-five  years  respectively,  are 
to  celebrate  their  diamond  jubilee  next  Sunday,  after  hav- 
ing been  married  sixty  years.  I  wish  I  could  attend. 
The  most  important  thing  of  all  is  that  they  have  raised  a 
family  of  eight  children.  They  are  deserving  of  the 
highest  honor,  especially  the  mother.  The  women  of  this 
country  who  are  postponing  motherhood,  or  refusing  it 
altogether,  are  denying  themselves  the  greatest  happiness 
that  can  come  to  a  woman. 

Julius  Riess,  Esq., 

New  York  City. 

To  the  Mayor  of  "Boyville" 

January  15,  1913. 

My  Dear  Mr.  Mayor:  I  am  informed  by  your  let- 
ter of  your  election  as  Mayor  of  Boyville.  I  congratu- 
late you,  and  greet  you.  I  hope  your  administration  will 
be  a  success.  It  cannot  be  a  success  unless  you  have  a 
good  mental  and  physical  spine.  And  also  some  patience 
and  philosophy.  And  also  as  little  conceit  and  smartness 
as  the  law  allows.  The  self-sufficient,  all-sufficient,  in- 
sufficient fellow  in  office  makes  every  one  smile  and 
shrug  his  shoulder,  if  not  both  shoulders,  and  sometimes 
wink  his  left  eye  also.  You  have  duties  to  perform.  You 
must  not  be  swerved  from  the  performance  thereof  by 
clamor,  by  abuse,  by  lying,  by  corrupt  newspapers,  by  the 
influence  of  party  politics,  or  be  led  by  any  influence  ex- 
cept your  desire  and  purpose  to  do  God's  will.  If  you 
go  along  in  that  line  your  administration  will  be  a  success. 
Every  evil  influence  will  be  against  you,  it  is  true.  And 
such  influences  are  very  powerful  in  our  time,  and  es- 
pecially in  our  cities.  But  you  will  succeed.  Some  of 

137 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

the  mud  thrown  at  you  may  stick  for  a  while,  but  before 
your  term  is  up  it  will  all  have  worn  off,  or  been  brushed 
off  by  the  hands  of  just  men  and  women,  and  you  will  be 
seen  of  all  as  a  true  man  who  has  done  his  duty.  I  do 
not  know  what  kind  of  a  city  Boyville  is,  but  I  suppose 
it  is  very  much  like  all  other  cities,  made  up  of  good  peo- 
ple, and  bad  people,  and  uncharitable  people,  and  a  few 
people  whose  minds,  like  their  livers,  are  filled  with  ulcers, 
of  people  who  want  to  help  you,  and  of  people  who  want 
to  hurt  you,  with  a  few  people  thrown  in  who  hate  every- 
body else,  and  think  they  are  better  than  anybody  else, 
when  they  are  only  more  bilious  than  anybody  else.  If 
you  are  so  fortunate  as  to  be  Mayor  of  a  city  that  has  all 
good  people,  then  my  letter  has  no  application.  How- 
ever things  may  be,  I  wish  you  every  success. 

Hon.  Edgar  Mills, 

Mayor  of  "  Boyville," 

Chicago,  Illinois. 

Slavery 

January  16,  1913. 

Dear  Mr.  Howe:  Your  letter  of  January  16th  sug- 
gesting that  one  of  the  negro  race  be  put  on  the  committee 
for  the  celebration  of  the  300th  anniversary  of  the  settle- 
ment of  Manhattan  Island,  is  at  hand.  You  remind  me 
that  shortly  after  the  arrival  of  the  first  settlers  the  first 
negro  slaves  were  brought  here  and  sold  at  auction  at  the 
old  stockade.  How  strange  all  that  sounds.  But  it 
sounds  still  stranger  that  slavery  existed  in  the  State  of 
New  York  when  Lincoln  was  born  in  1809,  and  was  not 
abolished  until  the  year  1827,  namely,  by  an  act  of  the 
Legislature.  Some  people  are  astonished  when  they  hear 
this,  and  doubt  it.  On  January  1st,  1863,  President 
Abraham  Lincoln  by  proclamation  freed  the  slaves  in  all 
sections  where  armed  insurrection  against  the  United 
States  existed.  This  left  slavery  untouched  in  the  states 
and  sections  not  in  a  state  of  insurrection.  Slavery  was 

138 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

finally  abolished  throughout  this  nation  in  1865  by  a  con- 
stitutional amendment.  It  took  over  1800  years  of 
Christianity  to  strike  the  shackles  from  the  slave. 

I  knew  out  in  Flatbush,  now  a  part  of  Brooklyn,  an 
old  woman  who  was  owned  as  a  slave  there  when  she  was 
young.  Her  name  was  Maria  Jackson.  She  died  at  the 
age  of  105  years  a  few  years  ago.  Her  husband  had  also 
been  a  slave  there.  I  often  talked  with  her  on  the  sub- 
ject, and  she  said  her  life  as  a  slave  was  happy  and  that 
they  were  all  well  treated. 

The  committee  is  now  made  up,  and  out  of  my  hands, 
but  I  will  see  if  the  chairman  can  find  a  place  for  one  of 
the  negro  race. 

James  H.  Howe,  Esq. 


Pierre  Loti's  Nonsense 

Febry.  17,  1913. 

Dear  Mr.  Johnson:  I  fear  a  lot  of  people  are  an- 
noyed by  the  article  of  Pierre  Loti  in  the  February 
CENTURY.  If  it  had  appeared  in  some  minor  magazine, 
it  would  not  matter,  but  appearing  in  the  CENTURY  it 
will  receive  credence  all  over  Europe.  The  picture  he 
gives  of  this  city  is  quite  grotesque. 

As  his  ship  comes  up  to  the  dock  he  says  he  sees  "  A 
thousand  chimneys  belch  forth  black  smoke  or  white 
eddies  of  steam."  The  fact  is  that  Europeans  immedi- 
ately notice  that  unlike  other  large  cities  this  city  is  almost 
free  from  black  smoke.  There  are  very  few  chimneys 
here  belching  black  smoke.  They  are  the  exception  here, 
but  the  rule  in  other  cities.  This  is  the  one  great  city 
which  has  remained  comparatively  free  of  black  smoke. 
And  then  he  says  that  "  On  all  sides  enormous  signs  are 
spread  out  not  less  than  40  feet  high."  Now  it  may  be 
that  he  saw  one  sign  of  that  kind.  He  continues:  "  The 
shriek  of  whistles,  the  dismal  moaning  of  sirens,  the  rum- 
ble of  motors,  and  the  din  of  factories,  deafen  the  ear." 

139 


MAYOR    GAYNQR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

This  is  all  before  he  gets  ashore.  He  says  that  on  the 
declaration  paper  they  gave  him  aboard  ship  one  question 
asks  him,  "  Are  you  an  idiot?"  Is  that  true? 

He  finally  gets  to  his  hotel.  It  is  of  such  great  height 
that  he  cannot  tell  the  number  of  stories.  The  elevators 
in  it  are  "  prodigious."  It  overlooks  Central  Park,  so 
that  he  can  see  the  trees,  and  yet  we  find  further  on  that 
it  is  somewhere  over  on  Broadway.  From  his  window  he 
says  he  looks  down  on  the  buildings,  "  all  of  them  red,  a 
dark  red,  shading  into  chocolate  brown.  Everywhere  are 
walls  of  red  brick ;  everywhere  terraced  roofs,  without  tiles 
of  course,  but  covered  with  some  sort  of  waterproof  ma- 
terial, also  painted  red."  From  what  hotel  window  could 
he  see  anything  like  this  ?  Where  are  these  red  buildings  ? 
He  goes  on:  'These  terraces  (namely,  these  terraced 
roofs),  form  promenades  for  the  inhabitants,  their  dogs 
and  their  cats.  Men  sit  there  in  their  shirt  sleeves." 
Where  are  all  these  terraced  roofs  in  the  city  of  New 
York?  I  am  aware  that  we  have  a  few  public  roof  gar- 
dens, but  for  our  houses  to  be  covered  with  terraced  roofs 
is  something  none  of  us  knew  up  to  this  time. 

Still  at  his  window  he  goes  on  as  follows :  "  A  never- 
ending  roar  reaches  me  from  below.  There  are  automo- 
biles, as  in  Paris,  and  in  addition,  the  elevated  trains,  which 
run  on  a  noisy  iron  trestle  level  with  the  second  or  third 
stories  of  the  houses.  But  underground  there  are  still 
others,  rumbling  like  thunder  in  the  bowels  of  the  earth." 
From  his  skyscraper  window  he  even  hears  the  thunderous 
rumble  of  the  subway  trains.  I  did  not  know  that  we 
could  hear  these  even  from  the  surface  of  the  street. 

He  is  interviewed  by  the  reporters.  They  ask  him 
what  he  thinks  of  the  women  of  New  York,  and  he 
answers :  "I  have  seen  only  one  woman  since  I  arrived, 
a  chambermaid  in  the  elevator,  and  she  was  a  negress." 
What  hotel  in  New  York  City  has  negresses  for  chamber- 
maids or  servants? 

At  9  o'clock  at  night  he  descends  from  the  lofty  story 
of  his  hotel  and  joins  the  crowds  below  in  Broadway, 

140 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

from  which  we  learn  that  his  hotel  is  in  Broadway.  He 
gives  a  picture  of  what  he  sees  on  the  sidewalk,  as  fol- 
lows: "  And  what  a  mixture  of  races.  One  recognizes, 
as  they  pass,  Japanese,  Chinese  with  the  European  hair- 
cut, Greeks,  Levantines  and  fair-haired  Scandinavians." 
Did  he  see,  even  one  of  these,  unless  the  last?  If  he  did, 
it  was  quite  unusual.  He  then  says  that  many  handsome, 
well-dressed  women  went  by,  and  goes  on  to  say:  "  But 
really  there  are  too  many  negresses.  One  passes  at  every 
step  a  black  face  under  a  large  hat  trimmed  with  roses." 
Who  else  ever  saw  this  procession,  especially  of  negresses 
in  Broadway  or  any  other  street  here? 

He  goes  out  into  Central  Park  on  Sunday.  He  tells 
us  that  squirrels  have  taken  possession  of  the  park.  Now 
we  all  know  that  in  two  or  three  places  in  the  park  squir- 
rels come  around  your  bench  for  a  nut,  but  he  gives  this 
as  the  case  all  over  the  park. 

He  then  speaks  of  the  luxury  "  in  the  opulent  quarters 
that  surround  the  park."  He  says:  "Mulatto  door- 
keepers in  gallooned  liveries  stand  under  marble  or 
porphyry  portals  flanked  by  Greek,  Byzantine  or  Gothic 
colonnades,  and  by  wrought-iron  gateways  of  which  our 
own  cathedrals  might  be  proud."  I  have  been  along  Fifth 
avenue  very  often,  and  into  some  of  the  houses,  but  I 
never  saw  any  of  these  mulatto  doorkeepers,  nor  did  any 
one  else. 

These  are  some  of  the  most  extravagant  things  in  this 
article.  Where  he  saw  one  negress  he  seems  to  imagine  a 
procession  of  them,  and  so  on  with  all  the  sights  and 
sounds  which  he  writes  of. 

May  I  also  say  a  word  about  the  article  in  your  same 
number,  "  Lincoln  as  a  boy  knew  him."  Such  articles  are 
very  often  filled  with  exaggeration.  The  writers  of  them 
draw  on  their  imagination  very  largely  in  order  to 
heighten  their  own  consequence.  Did  this  boy  ever  see 
Mr.  Lincoln  in  the  handball  court,  and  hold  his  coat? 
Why  should  Lincoln  ask  him  to  hold  his  coat  while  he 
played?  And  then  why  should  we  believe  that  Lincoln 

141 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

received  while  playing  "  the  inevitable  chaffing  of  the 
Irish  players  and  spectators?"  Why  should  they  be  so 
rude  as  to  chaff  him?  Was  Lincoln  so  grotesque  that 
people  chaffed  him  in  that  way?  I  think  not.  I  think 
he  was  one  of  the  most  dignified  of  men.  He  dressed  like  a 
dignified  gentleman,  and  acted  like  one.  Among  his 
slouch  hat  contemporaries  he  even  wore  a  "  tall  hat."  This 
writer  also  gives  other  interviews  with  Mr.  Lincoln  that 
seem  to  me  wholly  apocryphal.  When  he  went  to  Lin- 
coln, the  practicing  attorney,  for  a  subscription  for  a  fire 
company  he  says  he  told  Mr.  Lincoln  the  name  of  the  en- 
gine was  to  be  "  The  Deluge,"  whereupon  Mr.  Lincoln 
entered  into  a  discussion  of  the  subject,  and  said  he  liked 
that  name  better  than  "  Spouter  "  or  "  Gusher."  How 
does  he  remember  this?  Other  like  questionable  things 
are  stated.  And  he  says  that  when  Lincoln  was  running 
for  the  Presidency  there  was  a  large  political  meeting  held 
outdoors  in  the  suburbs  of  Springfield,  and  that  "  about 
the  grounds  were  hogsheads  of  ice  water  and  washtubs  of 
lemonade."  Now  I  can  attest  that  there  was  no  such 
use  of  ice  water  at  that  time.  It  came  into  use  much 
later. 

Robert  Underwood  Johnson,  Esq., 

Editor,  Century  Magazine, 

New  York  City. 


Subways  and  Corrupt  and  Rag-bag  Newspapers 

Feb.  17,  1913. 

Dear  Sir:  Your  letter  about  the  subways  is  at  hand. 
You  say  as  follows:  '  I  personally  am  in  favor  of  the 
city  building  and  controlling  the  subways,  but  I  thought 
you  might  have  a  good  reason  to  the  contrary,  so  if  you 
will  please  enlighten  me  I  shall  be  very  much  obliged." 

As  you  seem  to  be  an  honest  man,  I  am  willing  to 
write  you  fully  about  the  matter.  You  say  you  favor 

142 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

the  city  building  and  controlling  the  subways,  and  want 
to  know  the  reason  why  I  am  not  of  the  same  view.  It  is 
very  discouraging  to  me  to  learn  that  you  think  I  am  not 
of  that  view.  You  could  only  have  been  brought  to  that 
view  by  reading  certain  false  and  corrupt  rag-bag  news- 
papers we  have  here.  You  certainly  have  never  heard 
or  read  a  word  from  me  to  the  effect  that  I  was  not  of  that 
view.  Of  course  you  may  have  read  the  intentionally  con- 
trived falsehoods  and  forgeries  to  that  effect  by  the  news- 
papers I  have  referred  to.  I  am,  as  I  always  have  been, 
in  favor  of  the  city  building  and  controlling  its  subways. 
Do  you  not  know  that  I  publicly  advocated  that  for  years  ? 
And,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  do  you  not  know  that  the  city 
does  build,  own  and  control  its  subways?  Do  you  not 
know  that  the  city  is  now  about  to  build  many  miles  of 
subways  and  is  to  own  and  control  them?  The  present 
subway  was  built  by  the  city,  and  is  owned  and  controlled 
by  it.  Every  dollar  that  went  into  its  construction  was 
furnished  by  the  city.  Do  you  not  know  all  this  ?  If  not, 
where  or  under  what  basket,  have  you  been  living? 

And,  as  I  have  told  you,  the  subways  which  are  now 
about  to  be  built  are  to  be  built,  owned  and  controlled  by 
the  city.  The  city,  however,  has  not  sufficient  borrowing 
credit  to  build  them,  unless  through  a  long  course  of  years. 
Therefore  the  operating  companies  are  putting  up  one  of 
them  one  half  and  the  other  a  large  part  of  the  money  to 
construct  these  subways.  But  the  companies  do  not  build 
them  or  own  them.  They  only  operate  them  on  a  lease. 
The  money  they  put  in  for  construction  they  pay  over  to 
the  city  and  the  city  builds  the  subways  with  that  money 
and  the  amounts  it  puts  in.  Did  you  never  hear  that? 
And  the  city  owns  and  controls  the  subways  from  the 
beginning.  That  the  companies  put  in  part  of  the  money 
for  construction  gives  them  no  ownership  of  the  subways. 
The  money  they  put  in  is  paid  back  out  of  the  earnings. 
The  city  does  not  guarantee  it  in  any  way.  The  money 
the  city  puts  in  is  paid  back  in  the  same  way.  And  when 
the  subways  are  completed  they  are  leased  out  to  these 

143 


MAYOR    GAYNOITS    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

companies  for  a  term  of  years.  That  lease  is  drawn  by 
the  city,  and  gives  it  full  control.  And  the  city  may  end 
that  lease  by  the  terms  thereof  at  any  time  after  ten  years, 
and  operate  the  roads  itself  if  it  sees  fit. 

The  companies  put  in  all  of  the  money  to  equip  these 
roads.  The  city  puts  in  nothing  for  equipment.  The 
city  could  not  put  in  anything  for  equipment  because  it 
has  not  the  money,  namely,  it  has  not  sufficient  borrowing 
margin  to  raise  the  money.  You  know,  of  course,  that  by 
a  provision  of  the  constitution  of  the  state  the  city  cannot 
borrow  money  or  incur  indebtedness  beyond  a  sum  equal 
to  10  per  cent,  of  the  real  estate  values  as  they  appear  on 
the  assessment  rolls.  Did  you  never  hear  of  that?  If 
you  never  heard  of  these  things  why  don't  you  read  some 
decent  newspaper  and  learn  them,  and  let  the  rag-bag 
newspapers  go? 

Now  I  have  answered  your  questions  fully.  You  speak 
only  of  the  city  building  and  "  controlling  "  the  subways. 
You  do  not  speak  of  the  city  "  operating  "  them.  The  city 
could  not  operate  them  now  because,  as  I  have  shown  you, 
the  city  has  not  borrowing  credit  enough  to  raise  the 
money  to  equip  them.  If  we  waited  until  the  city  could 
by  degrees  build  and  equip  these  subways  out  of  its  own 
funds,  we  would  have  to  wait  one  quarter  of  a  century  at 
least.  Did  you  never  hear  that?  The  whole  cost  is  to 
be  about  $300,000,000.  Moreover,  I  think  most  of  us  feel 
that  city  politics  and  government  are  not  yet  quite  suf- 
ficiently stable  and  safe  here  to  entrust  to  it  the  operation 
of  our  railways.  We  therefore  lease  them  out  for  terms 
of  years  to  operators;  and  when  these  leases  are  up  the 
equipment  also  becomes  the  property  of  the  city.  The 
roads  belong  to  the  city  from  the  start.  And,  moreover, 
as  I  have  told  you,  there  is  a  provision  in  the  lease  that 
after  ten  years  the  city  may  take  all  these  roads  and  equip- 
ments over  and  operate  them  itself,  if  it  be  in  a  financial 
condition  to  do  so. 

Now  have  I  answered  you,  and  are  you  satisfied?  Do 
not  be  deceived  by  rag-bag  and  corrupt  newspapers.  Why 

144 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

not  drop  them,  and  start  in  reading  decent  newspapers 
from  this  time  on. 

Emanuel  Deutsch,  Esq., 

New  York  City. 


The  Recall  and  Clamor 

Feb.  18,  1913. 

Dear  Sir :  You  ask  for  my  help  in  your  forthcoming 
debate  on  the  question  of  the  recall.  I  do  not  believe  in 
the  recall  either  for  judges  or  any  other  officials.  We 
already  have  ways  of  removing  corrupt  or  wrong-doing 
public  officials  without  calling  a  vote  on  the  question.  And 
also  our  terms  of  office  are  generally  so  short  that  we  can 
recall  officials  quickly  enough  at  the  end  of  their  terms. 
If  the  recall  existed  more  officials  would  give  way  to  clamor 
than  now.  We  have  officials  enough  now  giving  way  to 
the  abuse  and  clamor  of  demagogue  scamps  and  their 
ignorant  followers.  And  past  history  illustrates  to  us 
that  public  clamor  is  almost  always  in  the  wrong.  It  is 
no  better  now  than  when  it  sent  Jesus  to  the  Cross.  And 
we  often  mistake  clamor  for  the  voice  of  the  community. 
It  is  so  loud  that  we  think  it  includes  everybody,  whereas 
in  fact  it  may  include  very  few.  But  these  few  make  more 
noise  than  all  the  rest  of  us.  As  you  well  know  out  in 
Kansas,  one  stridulent  grasshopper  in  the  angle  of  a  fence 
makes  more  noise  than  the  noble  herd  of  cattle  nearby. 
The  official  whom  we  should  all  honor  is  the  one  who  stands 
up  like  a  man  against  clamor.  We  hear  much  nowadays 
from  certain  public  officials  that  they  are  elected  to  please 
the  people  by  doing  as  they  wish.  There  is  no  more  dan- 
gerous notion  among  us  than  this.  Officials  are  elected 
to  rule  according  to  the  laws,  whether  the  people  like  it  or 
not.  The  people  make  their  own  laws  by  their  represen- 
tatives sent  to  the  legislature.  Then  they  elect  executive 

145 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

and  judicial  officials  to  stand  by  these  laws  and  carry  them 
out,  clamor  or  no  clamor. 

George  A.  Swift,  Esq., 

Salina,  Kansas. 


Subway  Financing 

February  21,  1913. 

Dear  Sir:  Your  letter  is  at  hand.  You  say  you  ob- 
ject to  the  city  or  the  railroads  going  to  the  firm  of  Mor- 
gan &  Co.  for  money.  The  city  does  not  go  to  Morgan  & 
Co.  for  money.  When  the  city  sells  its  bonds  they  are 
publicly  advertised  and  go  to  the  highest  bidder.  The  bid- 
ders and  purchasers  are  many.  You  can  bid  for  and  pur- 
chase even  one  bond  if  you  wish.  As  to  railroads,  I  am 
sure  I  do  not  know  where  they  will  get  money  to  build 
and  carry  on  their  enterprises  except  of  bankers.  Where 
would  you  have  them  to  go  for  it?  To  cobblers?  We  do 
not  buy  shoes  of  bankers  or  money  of  shoemakers.  One 
of  these  subway  companies  borrows  its  money  through 
Schiff  &  Co. ;  the  other  through  Morgan  &  Co.  As  a  mat- 
ter of  fact  I  am  informed  that  280  banks  and  individuals 
agree  to  take  the  bonds.  I  do  not  know  that  Morgan  & 
Co.  take  any  of  them.  Of  course  you  may  not  understand 
that  these  operating  companies  cannot  sign  the  contract 
with  the  city  to  put  in  and  pay  over  to  the  city  the  vast 
sums  which  they  are  called  upon  to  expend  in  building  the 
subways  without  first  having  made  a  contract  for  the 
money  with  bankers,  or  people  who  deal  in  or  lend  money. 
They  are  not  in  a  position  to  contract  with  the  city  until 
they  first  have  a  contract  securing  to  them  the  money 
necessary.  They  cannot  pick  the  money  up  off  the  street 
as  they  go  along.  I  understood  their  bonds  are  being 
placed  at  96.  I  should  think  that  was  a  fairly  good 
placement  of  them  at  this  time.  The  city  is  in  no  way 
liable  for  these  bonds.  The  city  does  not  guarantee  them. 
It  has  nothing  to  do  with  placing  them.  It  is  none  of  the 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

city's  concern  where  the  companies  borrow  their  money. 
The  city  takes  note  in  the  contract  of  only  the  actual 
amount  of  money  which  the  companies  put  in.  The 
amount  actually  paid  over  to  the  city  and  no  more  is 
funded.  The  interest  on  it  is  paid  out  of  the  profits  of  the 
railroads.  Also  a  sinking  fund  sufficient  to  pay  the 
bonds  off  inside  of  40  years  is  put  aside  out  of  such  profits. 
The  city  puts  in  one-half  of  the  construction  money,  and 
the  companies  put  in  the  other  half.  But  they  have  to  pay 
their  half  over  to  the  city,  because,  as  I  suppose  you  know, 
the  city  builds  the  railroads  by  contracts  publicly  let.  The 
companies  do  not  build  them.  And  of  course  you  know 
the  city  owns  the  railroads  from  the  start.  The  companies 
put  in  all  of  the  money  for  the  equipment  of  these  rail- 
roads. The  city  contributes  no  part  of  that.  I  have 
already  stated  to  you  that  the  interest  and  sinking  fund 
on  the  bonds  of  the  company  are  paid  out  of  the  earnings. 
The  interest  and  sinking  fund  on  the  city's  money  are 
paid  in  the  same  way.  Then  if  there  be  any  over-plus  it 
is  divided  equally  between  the  companies  and  the  city. 
That  is  the  contract.  The  operating  lease  is  for  a  term 
of  49  years.  But  the  contract  contains  a  provision  that 
at  any  time  after  the  expiration  of  ten  years  the  city  may 
end  the  lease  and  take  over  the  property  and  operate  the 
railroads  itself,  or  turn  them  over  to  a  new  operator,  as 
it  may  see  fit.  I  thought  I  would  write  you  all  this,  be- 
cause you  seem  to  be  an  intelligent  man,  and  I  hope  you 
are  desirous  of  knowing  the  facts.  You  ask  whether  the 
companies  can  go  to  any  other  bankers  besides  Morgan  & 
Co.  for  money?  Yes,  they  can  go  to  any  banker  they 
see  fit.  Hundreds  of  bankers  throughout  this  country  are 
furnishing  funds  to  railroads  and  other  enterprises.  An 
intelligent  man  should  not  be  bamboozled  into  believing 
that  they  have  to  go  to  Morgan  &  Co.  I  have  already 
told  you  that  one  of  these  companies  goes  to  Schiff  &  Co. 
You  say  that  the  city  has  "  only  grafting,  incompetent,  or 
stupid  public  officials  to  look  after  the  public  interests."  I 
am  sorry  you  think  so.  In  fact,  I  do  not  believe  you  think 

147 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

so.  You  only  try  to  make  yourself  think  so.  My  asso- 
ciates in  the  city  government  are  men  of  the  highest 
honesty  and  intelligence.  Of  course  I  have  to  let  you 
think  anything  you  see  fit  of  me.  I  might  suggest  that  I 
am  well  known  here,  and  have  a  record  in  the  service  of  the 
public.  By  that  I  am  willing  to  be  judged,  however 
hard  you  may  try  to  feel  against  me.  It  may  be  you 
look  for  that  millenium  when  officials  and  bankers,  and 
all  useless  people,  shall  be  done  away  with. 

Henry  J.  Home,  Esq., 

New  York  City. 


A  Dramatic  Criticism 

March  5,  1913. 

Dear  Mr.  Robinson:  I  am  glad  that  the  play  (Dam- 
aged Goods)  is  to  be  given.  Nevertheless  I  think  it  is 
over-wrought,  and  over-stated,  and  that  it  strikes  many 
false  notes.  This  is  also  true  of  the  play  "  Maternity  " 
by  the  same  author.  From  my  observation  it  is  false  from 
beginning  to  end.  It  exhibits  alleged  phases  of  human 
nature  which  must  be  very  rare  indeed.  The  same  is  true 
of  the  other  play  in  the  volume  edited  by  Bernard  Shaw. 
The  part  of  the  play  "  Damaged  Goods  "  which  exhibits 
the  woman  going  up  and  down  and  getting  in  relation 
with  men  simply  to  communicate  her  disease  to  them 
through  deviltry  or  revenge,  is  false.  I  doubt  if  any 
woman  in  the  world  ever  did  such  a  thing.  The  wind-up 
of  the  play  also  seems  to  me  to  destroy  the  effect  of  the 
play  in  general.  After  bringing  out  the  great  point  that 
the  disease  is  a  lingering  one  the  play  winds  up  by  recon- 
ciling the  husband  and  wife  on  the  ground  that  all  danger 
is  now  over.  That  part  of  the  play  is  quite  an  encourage- 
ment to  men  given  to  lewd  women. 

I  am  very  certain  that  none  of  these  plays  will  survive 
as  literature.  There  is  very  little  in  them  which  is  true 

148 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

to  nature,  and  much  which  is  entirely  false  to  nature  and 
experience. 

Frederic  H.  Robinson,  Esq., 

New  York  City. 

On  Commission  Government 

March  6, 1913. 

Dear  Sir:  Your  letter  asks  me  to  help  you  in  a  de- 
bate in  your  High  School  by  giving  you  reasons  for  and 
against  the  proposition  "  that  all  cities  having  ten  thousand 
or  more  population  should  have  a  commission  form  of 
government."  In  the  first  place,  the  phrase  "  commission 
form  of  government  "  is  loose.  It  has  no  scientific  or  ac- 
curate meaning.  What  you  mean  is  whether  a  city  should 
be  governed  by  a  small  council  or  a  large  one.  Why, 
therefore,  not  say  so  in  so  many  words?  There  is  no  city 
in  this  country  being  governed  by  a  commission.  When 
Galveston  was  destroyed  by  flood  the  legislature  passed 
an  act  creating  a  commission  and  naming  the  five  com- 
missioners to  govern  that  city.  That  is  the  only  case  of  a 
city  being  put  in  charge  of  a  commission  that  I  know  of. 
But  the  courts  declared  the  act  unconstitutional  and  void. 
Some  cities  are  ruled  by  a  large  elected  council,  called  the 
Board  of  Aldermen,  or  the  Common  Council.  That  was 
formerly  the  case  with  all  of  the  cities  in  this  country. 
But  of  late  years  the  tendency  has  been  to  substitute  a 
small  elected  council  or  board  for  the  large  one.  Some 
people  inaccurately  call  this  small  council  or  board  a  com- 
mission. It  is  not  a  commission. 

I  have  no  objection  to  give  you  my  opinion  in  respect 
of  whether  the  large  council  or  the  small  one  gets  the  bet- 
ter results  in  city  government.  I  think  the  small  one  does. 
Large  councils  have  proved  to  be  failures  in  this  country. 
Their  membership  is  poor,  whereas  in  the  small  council 
you  can  get  a  good  membership.  And  the  small  council  is 
also  more  workable.  It  is  not  subject  to  so  many  delays 
as  the  large  council. 

149 


MAYOR    GAYNQR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

Here  in  this  city  we  have  a  large  council  of  73  called 
the  Board  of  Aldermen,  and  a  small  council  of  8  called 
the  Board  of  Estimate  and  Apportionment.  This  small 
council  does  substantially  all  the  important  council  busi- 
ness of  the  city.  The  large  council  has  been  shorn  of 
nearly  all  of  its  powers.  They  have  been  transferred  to 
the  small  council.  In  a  few  years  our  large  council  will 
probably  be  done  away  with  altogether.  It  is  very  hard 
to  get  anything  out  of  it.  There  are  some  exceedingly 
good  men  in  it,  and  others  who  are  not  so  good,  to  say  the 
least  I  ought  to  say. 

Lest  you  be  too  certain  of  small  councils,  let  me  remind 
you  that  the  great  Tweed  frauds  were  committed  in  this 
city  by  a  small  board  or  council.  And  if  you  look  about 
the  country  now  I  should  not  be  surprised  if  you  found 
dishonest  and  incompetent  government  here  and  there 
under  small  councils.  No  frame  of  government,  however 
good,  will  secure  good  government.  That  depends  upon 
the  men  put  into  office.  Devise  as  you  will,  contrive  as 
you  will  in  forming  instruments  of  government  and  laws, 
in  the  last  analysis  you  have  to  trust  somebody.  Govern- 
ment depends  more  on  men  than  on  laws.  Good  men  will 
give  good  government  even  with  bad  laws.  As  William 
Perm  says  in  his  preface  to  the  frame  of  government  which 
he  gave  to  the  colony  of  Pennsylvania,  namely : 

"  When  all  is  said,  there  is  hardly  one  frame  of  govern- 
ment in  the  world  so  ill  designed  by  its  first  founders,  that, 
in  good  hands,  would  not  do  well  enough;  and  story  tells 
us,  the  best,  in  ill  ones,  can  do  nothing  that  is  great  or 
good;  witness  the  Jewish  and  Roman  states.  Govern- 
ments, like  clocks,  go  from  the  motion  men  give  them; 
and  as  governments  are  made  and  moved  by  men,  so  by 
them  they  are  ruined  too.  Wherefore  governments  rather 
depend  upon  men,  than  men  upon  governments.  Let  men 
be  good,  and  the  government  cannot  be  bad;  if  it  be  ill, 
they  will  cure  it.  But,  if  men  be  bad,  let  the  government 
be  never  so  good,  they  will  endeavor  to  warp  and  spoil  it 
to  their  turn." 

150 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

I  hope  my  letter  will  help  you  in  your  debate,  but  you 
forgot  to  tell  me  which  side  you  are  on. 

Hubert  Smith,  Esq., 

Bartlesville  High  School, 

Dewey,  Okla. 


A  Rebuke 

March  25,  1913. 

Sir :  Your  letter  of  March  24th  is  at  hand.  I  have  no 
notion  that  it  is  written  to  me  in  good  faith.  In  fact  every 
one  will  perceive  that  it  is  a  dishonest  letter,  and  not  writ- 
ten in  good  faith.  Your  statement  that  I  have  in  any  way 
opposed  or  embarrassed  the  District  Attorney  in  the  in- 
dictment and  prosecution  of  offenders  in  the  Police  De- 
partment is  known  to  you  to  be  a  falsehood,  and  know- 
ing it  to  be  a  falsehood  you  are  quite  capable  of  uttering 
it.  I  have  unceasingly  done  all  I  could,  in  so  far  as  I 
could  spare  the  time,  to  further  and  assist  the  discovery  of 
graft  in  the  Police  Department,  and  the  prosecution  of 
offenders  therefor.  This  I  have  done  ever  since  I  came 
into  the  Mayor's  office,  and  before,  as  you  are  very  well 
aware.  Hereafter  when  you  wish  to  utter  conscious  false- 
hoods concerning  me  to  the  public,  do  not  take  the  dis- 
honest method  of  writing  a  letter  to  me,  when  the  letter 
is  not  meant  in  good  faith  at  all. 

Rev.  C.  H.  Parkhurst, 

Manhattan. 


The  Recall 

March  26,  1913. 

Dear  Mr.  Mayer:  You  say  that  you  are  one  of  five 
judges  of  a  recent  debate  on  the  subject  of  the  recall,  and 
that  the  judges  being  unable  to  agree  they  ask  me  to  de- 
cide the  question.  Our  terms  of  office  throughout  this 

151 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

country  are  so  short  that  we  can  recall  bad  officials  soon 
enough  at  the  end  of  their  terms  by  leaving  them  at  home. 
We  do  not  need  to  go  to  the  turmoil  and  trouble  of  a  recall 
by  popular  vote  during  the  term.  If  officials  commit  any 
wrong  in  office  we  have  ways  of  removing  them  already. 
And  then,  again,  threat  of  the  recall  could  be  used  to  in- 
timidate officials  and  make  them  do  what  they  would  not 
do  if  left  to  exercise  their  sound  judgment.  Public 
officials  are  too  much  influenced  by  clamor  now.  If  the 
recall  existed,  many  more  of  them  would  be  giving  away 
to  clamor  than  now.  And  I  suppose  you  know  from  his- 
tory that  clamor  has  seldom  if  ever  been  right.  Clamor 
is  no  better  now  than  it  was  when  it  sent  Jesus  to  the  Cross. 
It  is  the  duty  of  all  public  officials  to  stand  up  against 
clamor.  The  worst  kind  of  clamor  is  that  incited  by  a  rich 
demagogue.  May  I  say  to  you  that  within  two  years  cer- 
tain demagogues  were  demanding  the  recall  of  the  Mayor 
of  this  city  because  he  favored  the  subway  system  which 
has  since  been  agreed  upon  and  adopted  with  general  ap- 
proval. How  many  people  would  now  vote  to  recall  him 
on  that  score?  But  at  that  time  probably  a  great  many 
would  have  voted  to  recall  him.  And  so  I  decide  against 
the  recall. 

Leo  K.  Mayer,  Esq., 

Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 


Recall  of  Judicial  Decisions 

March  28,  1913. 

Dear  Mr.  Hubbard:  I  have  your  letter  of  March 
24th,  asking  me  to  assist  you  in  a  debate  which  is  to  take 
place  between  Georgetown  College  and  the  Kentucky 
State  University,  on  the  proposition  that  when  an  act  of 
the  legislature  is  declared  void  by  the  highest  court,  20 
per  cent,  of  the  voters  may  require  the  court's  decision  to 
be  submitted  to  a  vote  of  the  people,  so  that  they  may 
overrule  the  decision  if  they  see  fit,  by  their  votes.  This 

152 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

is  what  has  come  to  be  popularly  called  of  late  the  recall 
of  judicial  decisions.  I  am  not  able  to  favor  such  a  method. 
I  do  not  think  it  should  be  adopted.  We  already  have 
a  method  of  nullifying  or  recalling  such  decisions.  We 
have  practiced  it  all  over  this  country  since  the  beginning 
of  our  government.  When  the  courts  declare  an  act  of 
the  legislature  void  for  being  unconstitutional,  the  method 
is  to  submit  a  constitutional  amendment  to  a  vote  of  the 
people  to  change  the  law  so  as  to  make  the  law  as  the 
people  want  it,  instead  of  leaving  it  as  the  court  decided 
it.  This  is  and  has  always  been  a  common  thing  among 
us.  In  this  state  we  pass  such  constitutional  amendments 
freely.  Only  a  few  years  ago  we  passed  five.  There  is 
one  up  to  be  voted  on  this  year,  namely,  with  regard  to 
the  Employers'  Liability  statute  which  our  highest  court 
declared  unconstitutional  and  void.  No  doubt  the  people 
will  overrule  that  decision,  or  recall  it,  if  you  prefer  that 
word.  In  a  similar  way,  when  the  courts  make  a  decision 
which  does  not  involve  any  constitutional  point,  but  only 
some  ordinary  legal  question,  if  the  people  are  not  satis- 
fied with  the  decision,  the  legislature  may  change  the  law 
to  conform  to  the  enlightened  will  of  the  community. 
And  the  people  are  free  to  choose  legislators  to  suit  them. 
I  think  these  ways  of  overruling  or  recalling  decisions, 
i.  e.,  by  changing  the  law  as  declared  by  such  decisions, 
to  conform  to  the  enlightened  judgment  of  the  com- 
munity, are  much  better  than  to  submit  each  obnoxious 
decision  to  a  vote  of  the  people  for  approval  or  reversal. 
Indeed,  I  doubt  if  that  method  would  be  practical.  In 
most  cases  something  more  would  need  to  be  done  by  way 
of  legislation  than  the  mere  upsetting  of  the  decision.  If 
it  be  thought  that  it  is  now  too  difficult  to  get  constitu- 
tional amendments  submitted  to  a  vote  of  the  people,  the 
method  ought  to  be  made  easier.  In  this  state  it  is  quite 
easily  done  from  year  to  year,  but  in  addition  to  that  our 
constitution  contains  a  requirement  that  it  be  submitted 
to  revision  every  twenty  years. 

I  am  enclosing  you  a  speech  which  I  made  at  Yale 

153 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

University  last  year,  from  which  you  may  draw  some 
material. 

Robert  Hubbard,  Esq., 

Georgetown,  Ky. 


Ragbag  Newspapers 

April  2,  1913. 

Dear  Sir:  Your  letter  of  April  1st,  quoting  from  a 
certain  morning  newspaper  what  it  gives  as  a  declaration 
of  mine,  that  the  foreigners  here  "  Have  as  much  right 
to  ask  us  to  change  our  flag  as  we  have  to  prevent  them 
from  drinking  liquor  on  Sunday,"  and  rebuking  me  for 
this  utterance,  is  at  hand.  You  must  be  a  very  stupid 
man,  or  else  very  vicious,  to  believe  any  such  thing.  Do 
you  not  know  that  that  newspaper  makes  up  such  things 
from  day  to  day?  Does  not  everybody  know  that  I  never 
say  anything  to  that  newspaper  at  all?  But  let  me  ease 
your  mind  by  saying  to  you  that  I  never  said  what  you 
attribute  to  me.  Would  it  not  be  well  for  you  to  give  up 
the  ragbag,  corrupt  newspapers,  and  read  decent  news- 
papers? Do  you  not  know  we  have  several  decent  news- 
papers in  this  city? 

E.  Hamilton,  Esq.. 

Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 


Commending  the  Police 

April  8,  1913. 

Dear  Mr.  Albertson :  I  am  glad  to  receive  your  letter 
about  the  police.  There  is  no  better  police  force  in  the 
whole  world.  And  the  detective  branch  of  it  is  recognized 
everywhere  as  the  best  in  the  world.  The  abuse  heaped  on 
the  force  for  now  over  a  year  is  wholly  unmerited.  There 
are  a  few  grafters  on  the  force.  I  have  been  driving  them 

* 

154 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

to  the  wall  ever  since  I  have  been  here.  All  the  revelations 
that  have  been  made  are  by  criminals  whom  the  police  put 
out  of  business.  I  expected  more  revelations  than  we  have 
had.  If  we  had  left  these  criminals  alone  there  would  have 
been  no  revelations.  Every  time  we  threaten  a  person 
running  a  house  of  debauchery  or  gambling  now  he  threat- 
ens to  go  and  disclose  to  the  District  Attorney.  We  tell 
him  to  go  ahead — that  is  what  we  want  him  to  do. 

Kerr  F.  Albertson,  Esq., 

Manhattan. 


What  Would  Jesus  Do? 

April  14,  1913. 

Dear  Sir:  You  tell  me  you  have  been  elected  a  Jus- 
tice of  the  Peace  at  Oak  Park,  Illinois,  and  desire  to  ad- 
minister your  office  the  same  as  Jesus  would  do  if  he  were 
there  instead  of  you.  You  ask  for  my  advice.  You  say 
you  believe  the  present  system  of  fines  for  minor  offenses 
is  wrong  in  principle,  for  the  reason  that  it  "  tends  to 
increase  crime  and  promote  disrespect  to  law."  You  also 
say  that  the  law  allows  you  to  collect  fees  for  yourself. 
You  ask  if  Jesus  would  assess  such  fines  and  collect  such 
fees,  if  he  were  in  your  place.  You  seem  to  be  a  man  who 
thinks  himself  wiser  and  better  than  the  law  and  above 
the  law.  That  kind  of  a  man  is  the  most  dangerous  that 
can  be  put  into  office,  especially  in  a  free  country.  The 
law  is  made  by  the  representatives  whom  we  elect  to  the 
legislature.  You  are  elected  a  Justice  of  the  Peace  to 
accept  the  laws  thus  made,  and  carry  them  out.  If  you 
do  not  wish  to  do  that  you  ought  to  resign.  You  think 
you  are  wiser  and  better  than  the  law,  but  if  you  make 
inquiry  you  will  probably  find  few  people  who  are  of  that 
opinion.  '  What  would  Jesus  do?  "  you  ask  me.  If  he 
accepted  the  office  he  would  also  accept  the  law  as  it  is  and 
administer  it  faithfully.  He  would  not  take  the  law  into 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

his  own  hands.  He  would  not  assume  to  do  as  he  liked. 
He  would  say,  "  I  do  not  think  this  law  is  wise,  but  the 
the  legislature  made  it,  and  I  have  to  abide  by  it,  and,  prob- 
ably they  are  wiser  about  it  than  I  am."  And  he  would 
go  on  and  administer  the  law  as  he  found  it.  Indeed,  that 
is  the  way  he  acted  when  he  was  on  this  earth.  He  abided 
by  the  law.  He  constantly  quoted  the  law.  Where  he 
did  not  like  the  law,  he  advocated  a  change  to  something 
better.  He  attended  the  synagogue  and  taught  the  law 
there.  It  was  the  abuse  and  misuse  of  the  law  which  he 
denounced.  If  you  do  not  like  the  laws  as  they  are  in  your 
locality,  you  ought  to  get  yourself  elected  to  the  legisla- 
ture, and  then  work  hard  to  change  them.  But  as  a  judge, 
you  must  abide  by  the  law.  Are  you  unconscious  of  the 
fact  that  by  your  oath  of  office  you  have  sworn  to  do  so? 
Suppose  every  judge  in  this  country,  from  the  highest  to 
the  lowest,  took  it  into  his  head  to  ignore  the  law,  and 
decide  cases  to  suit  himself.  What  a  woeful  condition  that 
would  very  soon  put  us  all  in.  And  yet  you,  a  little  Justice 
of  the  Peace  out  in  Oak  Park,  Illinois,  want  to  act  in  that 
way.  As  to  your  fees,  neither  Jesus  nor  any  one  else  cares 
whether  you  collect  them  or  not. 

Henry  Neil,  Esq., 

Justice  of  the  Peace, 

Oak  Park,   111. 


Segregating  Virtue 

April  23,  1913. 

Dear  Mr.  Goodman:  I  am  glad  indeed  that  you  are 
engaged  in  the  work,  and  I  hope  we  will  be  able  to  do 
something  worth  the  while. 

The  document  submitted  to  me  by  Mr.  Schoenfeld 
(Prettyfield)  is  one  of  the  most  extraordinary  that  has 
ever  come  to  my  attention.  I  think  I  will  have  to  write 
him  a  letter  about  it.  It  seems  to  be  based  largely  on  the 
notion  that  all  that  is  necessary  to  do  a  thing  is  to  pass 

156 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

a  law  for  it  to  be  done.  Will  he  catch  all  the  women  and 
put  them  in  these  places?  And  will  he  then  stand  guard 
and  keep  them  there?  Or  does  he  think  they  will  go  there 
and  stay  there  voluntarily?  Ask  him  what  he  thinks  of 
segregating  virtue  instead  of  vice.  Would  it  not  be  an 
easier  job?  But  we  must  not  poke  too  much  fun  at  him. 

Elias  B.  Goodman,  Esq., 

New  York  City. 


Tom  Paine 

May  14,  1913. 

Dear  Mr.  Vanderweyde:  Owing  to  other  engage- 
ments I  am  not  able  to  accept  your  invitation  to  speak  at 
the  Dedication  of  the  Paine  Monument  in  New  Rochelle 
on  Memorial  Day.  One  of  the  greatest  perversions  in 
history  was  the  dissemination  of  the  falsehood  against 
Paine  that  he  was  an  atheist.  A  few  people  fastened  that 
upon  him.  But  now  he  is  emerging  from  that  blight.  No 
firmer  believer  in  Almighty  God  ever  lived.  He  was  an 
infidel,  in  that  he  did  not  believe  all  the  essential  tenets 
of  the  Christian  religion.  But  that  he  was  a  disbeliever 
in  Almighty  God  was  a  mere  fabrication. 

W.  M.  Vanderweyde,  Esq., 

New  York  City. 


Preface  to  the  Police  Manual  of  Laws  and  Ordinances 

May  17,  1913. 

To  the  Police  Force :  In  this  digest  of  laws  and  ordi- 
nances you  will  see  the  word  "  arrest "  frequently  used. 
But  you  now  all  know  that  you  do  not  arrest  without  a 
warrant  for  small  offenses  unless  it  is  quite  necessary  to 
do  so.  You  serve  a  "  summons  "  instead  as  often  as  you 
can.  A  book  of  summonses  will  be  given  you  with  this 

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MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

digest.  And  remember  you  are  not  obliged  to  arrest  (or 
summon)  for  every  little  offense.  The  law  says  you 
"  may  "  arrest  without  a  warrant  for  every  misdemeanor 
committed  in  your  sight.  It  does  not  say  you  "  must." 
You  must  use  your  good  judgment.  In  the  case  of  little 
batteries,  and  rows,  and  the  like,  it  most  often  suffices  to 
send  the  offenders  along  about  their  business.  And  in 
case  of  ordinance  violation,  it  also  often  suffices  for  you 
to  admonish  the  offender  that  he  will  be  arrested  or  sum- 
moned, if  the  violation  continue. 

Stay  on  your  post  if  possible.  You  should  never  leave 
your  post  with  a  prisoner  unless  it  is  necessary.  Summon 
him  or  her  instead  if  the  offense  be  small.  Sometimes  the 
offender  may  be  a  stranger,  and  have  no  home  or  place  of 
business.  Then  you  may  have  to  arrest.  But  not  if  the 
offense  be  trivial.  Use  your  good  discretion. 

To  show  how  intelligently  you  are  already  acting 
along  these  lines,  let  me  tell  you  that  by  using  your  good 
judgment  in  the  way  I  have  mentioned,  and  also  resorting 
to  the  summons,  you  have  already  reduced  the  enormous 
number  of  arrests  without  a  warrant  made  in  the  year 
before  I  became  Mayor,  namely,  235,168,  down  to 
132,923.  And  of  the  235,168  boys,  girls,  men  and  women 
thus  arbitrarily  arrested  and  locked  up  in  station  houses 
in  that  year,  102,257  were  promptly  discharged  by  the 
magistrates  as  having  been  arrested  for  no  cause  or  for 
too  trivial  cause.  Did  you  ever  think  of  the  amount  of 
humiliation,  suffering  and  anguish  caused  by  these  un- 
necessary arrests,  and  the  tendency  they  had  to  make 
criminals,  especially  of  boys?  You  have  done  away  with 
that  barbarous  condition  in  three  years,  and  I  thank  you 
for  it.  And  meanwhile,  while  petty  politicians  and  cor- 
rupt newspapers  have  been  trying  to  defame  and  degrade 
you,  for  their  own  ends,  you  have  gradually  worked  out 
other  great  reforms. 

Remember  that  your  chief  business  is  to  keep  outward 
order  and  decency,  and  arrest  real  criminals,  not  good 
citizens  guilty  only  of  some  small  thing. 

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MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

To  an  Inspired  Genius 

May  22,  1913. 

Dear  Sir:  You  let  me  know  by  your  letter  that  you 
have  extraordinary  powers  and  are  very  anxious  to  do 
something  great.  And  you  ask  for  my  advice.  Do  not 
try  too  hard  to  do  something  great.  I  advise  you  to  begin 
with  little  things.  Do  little  things.  If  you  have  some- 
thing to  teach,  teach  it  to  two  or  three,  or  to  those  around 
you.  Those  who  are  waiting  for  some  great  occasion  to 
do  something  great  rarely  do  anything  at  all.  Do  what 
comes  to  your  hand.  Be  simple.  Perhaps  your  notion 
that  you  are  able  to  do  something  great  is  a  false  one. 
Wherever  you  are  do  your  simple  duty  first.  If  you  do 
it  well  it  will  lead  to  larger  things,  and  in  that  way  you 
will  grow,  and  it  may  be  by  experience  become  great,  and 
then,  if  occasion  offers  you  may  do  something  great.  But 
do  not  wait.  I  think  it  very  improbable  that  you  are 
inspired. 

Arthur  D.  Pickens,  Esq., 

New  York  City. 


Books 

May  23,  1913. 

Dear  Mr.  Allen :  I  am  very  glad  to  comply  with  your 
request.  All  the  book  lovers  I  have  known  have  been 
good-hearted  and  true.  I  sign  the  slips  to  be  pasted  in 
your  "  Epictetus  "  and  "  Intellectual  Development  of 
Europe  "  as  you  request.  I  cannot  say  that  I  have  derived 
much  from  "  Epictetus."  Nor  am  I  learned  in  that  book. 
That  I  am  is  a  mere  newspaper  statement.  When  I  was 
running  for  Mayor,  and  lying  newspaper  proprietors  were 
inventing  every  sort  of  lie  concerning  me,  I  made  some 
allusion  to  it  one  night  in  one  of  my  speeches  and  said: 
'  That  another  saith  of  thee  concerneth  more  him  who 

159 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

saith  it  than  it  concerneth  thee  " — adding  "  as  Epictetus 
says."  That  is  all  the  justification  the  newspapers  ever 
had  for  saying  that  I  was  a  lover  of  Epictetus.  But  the 
"Intellectual  Development  of  Europe"  is  one  of  the  books 
which  have  had  a  distinct  effect  on  me,  and  I  am  glad  you 
rate  it  high  also.  Whatever  I  am  it  helped  to  form  me. 
In  my  article  in  the  "  Independent  "  a  few  months  ago  on 
books  and  reading  I  gave  a  list  of  the  12  or  15  books  which 
have  impressed  and  benefited  me  most,  and  included 
therein  the  "  Intellectual  Development  of  Europe."  Of 
course  some  of  the  scientific  parts  of  that  book  have  be- 
come obsolete,  but  as  a  whole  it  is  still  a  great  book  and 
will  always  remain  such. 

Charles  Dexter  Allen,  Esq., 

Montclair,  N.  J. 


Bill  Boards 

May  23,  1913. 

Dear  Miss  Scheff :  Your  letter  is  at  hand.  I  am  glad 
you  are  organizing  a  "  City  Beautiful  Association,"  with 
the  main  object  of  doing  away  with  the  disgusting  bill- 
boards which  confront  us  all  over  the  city.  But  you  must 
remember  that  in  order  to  carry  out  your  purpose  of 
censoring  and  regulating  them  we  must  get  legislation. 
If  the  next  Legislature  be  in  the  humor  to  give  you  such 
legislation  be  ready  with  a  bill  all  prepared  for  them  be- 
fore they  are  got  out  of  it.  You  know  the  old  Spanish 
proverb,  "  When  presented  with  a  heifer  be  ready  with 
the  rope."  I  am  willing  to  help  you  draw  the  bill.  Do 
not  indulge  the  hope  that  the  proprietors  of  these  bill- 
boards will  voluntarily  permit  you  to  censor  or  regulate 
their  use.  One  of  the  biggest  and  nastiest  of  them  all  is 
owned  by  a  newspaper  proprietor  of  this  city  who  pro- 
fesses to  teach  ethics  and  morals  to  us  all.  He  is  so  good 
that  he  spends  much  time  chastising  me,  especially  when 
I  happen  to  do  something  good — for  he  has  a  singular 

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MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

hate  for  good  in  any  one  except  himself.  No  week  passes 
that  I  do  not  receive  a  letter  of  complaint  about  the 
character  of  the  advertisements  on  his  great  big  nasty  bill- 
board. It  is  in  a  fine  residential  district,  and  disgusting  to 
the  whole  neighborhood.  Of  course  this  newspaper  pro- 
prietor with  his  usual  craft  has  the  land  on  which  this  bill- 
board is  erected  in  the  name  of  a  dummy  owner.  I  will 
try  to  help  you  and  your  association  as  much  as  I  can 
while  I  remain  in  office,  and  when  I  go  out  of  office  I  sup- 
pose that  even  you  will  no  longer  think  of  me,  much  less 
ask  for  my  help,  or  that  I  go  and  see  you  in  "  M'lle 
Modiste,"  or  anything  else.  How  do  you  like  that? 

Miss  Fritzi  Scheff, 

New  York  City. 


Classical  Music 

May  29,  1913. 

Dear  Madam:  I  think  it  would  be  better  for  you  to 
first  talk  with  the  Park  Commissioner  about  the  giving  of 
free  concerts  of  classical  music,  as  my  time  just  now  is 
very  much  taken  up.  Also  at  this  time  the  city  has  no 
money  to  spend  for  additional  music.  And  then  again  I 
am  not  able  to  see  that  the  city  should  furnish  Grand 
Opera  music.  Only  a  few  people  are  able  to  understand 
it.  The  great  Rufus  Choate  was  not  able  to  understand 
it  with  all  his  refinement  and  fine  nervous  system — as 
fine  as  the  finest  stringed  instrument.  When  he  went  to 
the  opera  he  had  to  say  to  his  niece:  "  My  dear,  please 
interpret  to  me  the  libretto,  lest  I  dilate  with  the  wrong 
emotion."  It  is  with  music  as  with  poetry.  Nearly  all 
of  us  are  able  to  enjoy  simple  music  or  a  simple  poem. 
But  only  a  few  among  us  are  able  to  enjoy  listening  to 
Grand  Opera  music  or  the  reading  of  Milton's  "  Paradise 
Lost."  Music  is  the  expression  or  voice  of  poetry — light 
music  of  light  poetry,  and  heavy  and  intricate  music  of 
like  poetry.  When  we  read  again  Collins'  delightful 

161 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

"  Ode  to  the  Passions  "  we  fully  realize  this.     You  re- 
member how  trippingly  it  begins — 

'  When  Music,  heavenly  maid,  was  young, 
While  yet  in  early  Greece  she  sung,"  etc.,  etc. 

Mrs.  Henrietta  Spader, 

Manhattan. 

Selfishness 

June  3,  1913. 

To  the  Honorable  the  Board  of  Aldermen :  The  habit 
of  all  selfish  people,  and  especially  if  they  be  big  and  fat, 
is  to  take  the  end  place  on  the  seats  of  the  summer  cars 
which  run  crosswise  of  the  car,  and  stick  there,  instead  of 
moving  along  to  the  other  end  as  other  people  get  on  the 
car.  This  causes  great  inconvenience.  All  those  who 
come  after  these  selfish  people  have  to  climb  over  their 
legs,  and  press  by  them  as  best  they  can.  I  would  sug- 
gest to  you  to  consider  whether  you  should  not  pass  an 
ordinance  making  this  selfish  practice  a  misdemeanor,  and 
requiring  those  who  enter  cars  with  cross  seats  to  move 
as  far  in  as  there  is  a  vacant  space  to  sit  down.  The  self- 
ishness and  hoggishness  of  some  people  in  this  matter  is 
a  distressing  spectacle,  to  say  nothing  of  the  inconvenience 
which  they  cause,  especially  to  mothers  with  little  children. 

Newspaper  Exaggerations 

June  3,  1913. 

Dear  Mr.  Pooler  I  thank  you  for  your  thoughtful 
letter,  and  for  enclosing  me  the  editorial  from  the  Jersey 
paper.  The  editor  knows  what  he  is  talking  about.  There 
are  a  lot  of  people  here  who  are  thinking  the  same  thing,  in 
spite  of  our  sensational  press.  This  Jersey  editor  was  not 
at  all  upset  when  he  saw  the  flaring  headlines  in  the  New 
York  newspaper,  "New  York's  Amazing  Record  of  Hold- 
ups." The  amazing  number  disclosed  was  687  in  a  year. 

162 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

Probably  the  major  part  of  this  number  was  fictitious. 
But  taking  it  all  as  true,  it  averaged  less  than  two  a  day. 
When  that  daily  average  is  compared  to  over  five  millions 
of  resident  people  here,  and  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
transients,  including  crooks  who  come  here  from  all  over 
the  United  States,  it  no  longer  seems  amazing,  but  small, 
and  maybe  amazing  for  its  smallness.  But  that  is  the 
way  our  sensational  newspapers  in  the  City  of  New  York 
defame  the  city.  But  the  scamps  have  run  their  course. 
They  are  no  longer  able  to  say  anything  to  hurt  this 
city.  There  is  no  more  decorous  or  orderly  city  on  the 
face  of  this  earth  than  this  city  of  New  York.  And  that 
there  are  a  few  grafting  policemen  no  longer  damns  this 
city  in  the  eyes  of  sensible  people.  There  will  always  be 
some  of  that  kind,  in  a  force  of  ten  thousand  men,  but 
the  number  has  been  growing  less  and  less  for  years. 

Pierce  N.  Poole,  Esq., 

New  York  City. 


Books  on  Marriage  and  Sex 

June  4,  1913. 

Dear  Mr.  Clews:  The  new  book  of  your  daughter 
Mrs.  Parsons  which  you  were  so  good  as  to  send  me  has 
afforded  me  much  pleasure.  I  sat  up  late  two  nights  to 
read  it  through.  I  could  hardly  lay  it  down.  It  is  inter- 
esting from  the  first  line  to  the  last.  Its  title,  "  The  Old- 
Fashioned  Woman,"  does  not  give  much  if  any  hint  to  the 
contents.  I  think  the  sub-title,  "  Primitive  Fancies  about 
the  Sex,"  is  better.  It  gives  a  pretty  good  clue  to  the 
contents.  The  relation  of  the  sexes  will  never  become  a 
tame  subject.  This  book  shows  the  way  man  has  looked 
on  woman,  and  woman  on  man,  from  the  beginning.  The 
intimacies,  the  attractions  and  the  antipathies  of  the  sexes, 
one  to  the  other,  are  all  portrayed.  I  wish  I  had  time  to 
write  a  review  of  your  daughter's  former  book,  "  The 
Family,"  and  also  of  this  her  later  book.  I  think  it  was 

163 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

five  years  ago  that  I  read  "  The  Family."  And  then  I 
reread  it  twice.  It  gives  all  the  literature  and  forms  of 
marriage  from  the  marriage  of  individuals  to  the  wholesale 
marriage  of  one  tribe  by  another.  These  two  books  con- 
sist of  the  most  interesting  and  fascinating  reading  mat- 
ter that  I  know  of.  Please  present  my  congratulations  to 
Mrs.  Parsons.  She  is  a  woman  of  talent.  Her  books 
will  be  widely  read. 

Henry  Clews,  Esq., 

New  York  City. 


Condemnation  Commissioners 

June  9,  1913. 

Sir:  I  am  enclosing  to  you  a  letter  from  the  Dock 
Commissioner.  By  all  means  let  us  bend  every  effort  to 
have  a  respectable  commission  appointed  by  the  court  to 
condemn  the  property  for  the  new  long  piers  at  45th 
Street.  It  would  be  too  bad  to  have  a  commission  of  little 
people  appointed  who  would  drool  over  the  matter  for 
months  or  years,  and  then  soak  the  city  for  two  or  three 
times  the  value  of  the  property.  Will  we  ever  get  rid  of 
that  sort  of  business?  The  quality  of  commissioners  ap- 
pointed to  condemn  land  was  better  for  a  while,  but  of 
late  it  seems  to  me  there  has  been  a  great  falling  off.  Some 
of  the  Judges  appoint  excellent  commissioners.  Would 
that  they  would  all  do  so. 

Archibald  R.  Watson,  Esq., 

Corporation  Counsel. 

Advises  the  Governor  Against  Purring  People 

June  10,  1913. 

Dear  Governor  Sulzer:  I  thank  you  for  sending  me 
your  speeches  and  other  literature  with  regard  to  the 
question  of  primaries.  I  could  not  help  reading  your 

164 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

speeches  with  sympathy.  Their  directness  and  lucidity 
impressed  me  strongly.  But  since  I  have  been  Mayor 
I  have  kept  from  meddling  with  matters  outside  of  the 
city  government,  and  on  the  whole  I  think  it  better  that  I 
should  continue  to  do  that.  You  know  the  many  things 
I  have  to  meet  here,  and  if  I  mix  myself  up  in  state  poli- 
tics my  situation  would  be  still  harder  than  it  is  now.  The 
partisan  vileness  down  here  is  something  dreadful.  There 
are  people  here  that  purr  around  you  and  me,  only  to 
betray  us  at  the  first  opportunity.  I  suppose  you  have 
already  perceived  that.  They  are  scoundrels  of  the  worst 
kind.  They  have  not  an  honest  hair  in  their  heads.  They 
are  not  men  for  you  and  me  to  associate  with  or  have  any- 
thing to  do  with.  You  have  an  honest  purpose  in  view. 
They  have  not  an  honest  thought.  The  better  I  do,  or 
try  to  do,  the  better  any  head  of  a  department  here  does, 
or  tries  to  do,  the  more  venomous  become  their  attacks. 
They  do  not  want  anyone  to  do  well  except  themselves. 
And  they  are  incapable  of  doing  anything  worth  the  while. 
They  have  neither  the  length,  the  breadth  nor  the  thick- 
ness to  do  it. 

Hon.  William  Sulzer,  Governor, 

State  of  New  York, 

Albany,  N.  Y. 


The  Police  Force 

June  12, 1913. 

Dear  Mr.  Cowl:  I  am  glad  you  sent  the  message  to 
Alderman  Nicoll  commending  Commissioner  Waldo  for 
the  way  in  which  he  has  discharged  his  duties  all  through 
your  district,  namely  the  retail  dry  goods  district.  The 
whole  town  now  perceives  that  Mr.  Waldo  is  an  honest 
man  and  has  done  no  wrong  thing.  Most  people  have 
seen  that  all  along,  notwithstanding  the  investigators  and 
the  clamorers.  They  have  stampeded  nobody.  I  have  felt 

165 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

safe  with  Mr.  Waldo  because  I  knew  that  he  was  honest. 
Some  come  and  tell  me  that  it  needs  a  thief  to  catch  a  thief, 
and  they  want  another  Byrnes,  or  another  Devery,  or  some 
such  person  at  the  head  of  the  police  force.  Out  with  such 
people.  The  investigators  and  the  clamorers  have  not  been 
able  to  put  their  finger  on  a  single  wrong  thing  that  Mr. 
Waldo  has  done.  And  during  all  the  noise  he  has  stuck  to 
his  duty  with  the  force  under  him  like  a  man.  He  has  not 
flinched  once.  Of  course  the  scent  and  the  cry  of  the  whole 
pack  has  been  pointed  against  me,  and  they  wanted  to 
make  Waldo  the  victim.  But  they  have  miscarried.  How 
pitifully  little  they  all  look  to-day.  All  they  are  able  to  say 
is  that  a  few  grafters  were  found  in  the  police  force.  And 
what  of  it?  Did  we  not  all  know  that  there  were  some 
grafters  in  the  force,  and  that  there  had  been  grafters  there 
for  more  than  a  generation?  And  are  there  not  grafters  in 
the  London  police  force  and  in  every  police  force?  Are 
they  not  from  time  to  time  found  out  and  convicted?  But 
who  caused  the  recent  graft  disclosures  except  Mr.  Waldo  ? 
He  closed  up  gambling  houses  and  worse  houses  under  the 
law  of  nuisance,  on  a  legal  basis  which  we  established,  with 
the  result  that  the  debased  men  and  women  proprietors, 
seeing  that  they  were  put  permanently  out  of  business, 
came  forward  and  made  disclosures  of  graft  for  twenty 
years  back.  The  Commissioner  caused  these  disclosures 
by  the  performance  of  his  duties,  and  yet  an  attempt  was 
made  to  raise  a  hue  and  cry  against  him  on  account  of  them 
as  though  he  had  done  something  wrong.  The  first  was 
the  case  of  Rosenthal.  He  opened  in  succession  twelve 
gambling  houses,  and  each  one  was  promptly  closed  up, 
one  after  another,  and  when  the  last  one  was  in  the  actual 
possession  of  the  police,  who  stayed  there  day  and  night, 
and  he  saw  his  occupation  was  gone,  he  revealed  that  a 
police  lieutenant  was  his  partner.  The  same  was  the  case 
with  Sipp  and  his  beastly  houses,  and  the  equally  beastly 
houses  of  the  two  women,  Goode  and  Hertz.  When  they 
were  put  out  of  business  they  came  forward  with  their  stor- 
ies of  graft,  running  back  for  a  generation.  They  had  cor- 

166 


MAYOR    GAYNQR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

rupted  policemen  for  that  length  of  time.  And  the  fellow 
Purcell  was  also  called  to  defile  this  town  with  his  ancient 
story.  Arid  a  few  days  later  he  murdered  his  child  and 
attempted  to  kill  his  wife.  But  there  was  no  halt  in  the 
attempt  to  degrade  the  police  force  and  this  grand  city. 
And  these  are  the  sources  of  all  the  revelations  of  graft. 
And  now  when  the  police  continue  to  put  such  infamous 
places  out  of  business,  the  proprietors  shake  their  fingers 
and  threaten  to  go  and  tell  their  tales,  and  they  are  told 
to  go  ahead  and  tell  everything.  Every  one  is  now  per- 
ceiving the  truth.  Not  a  wrong  thing  has  been  disclosed 
against  Mr.  Waldo.  He  is  an  earnest,  hardworking  man. 
I  expect  other  revelations  of  graft  and  I  hope  they  will 
come.  We  want  to  get  at  all  the  grafters.  We  have  got 
rid  of  the  old  timers  one  after  another.  Of  the  nineteen 
inspectors  that  were  there  when  I  became  Mayor  only  six 
remain.  In  one  way  and  another  we  have  edged  them  out. 
The  young  men  who  are  coming  up  to  take  their  places  are 
the  finest  in  the  world.  No  body  of  men  anywhere,  mili- 
tary or  civil,  is  selected  so  carefully  and  with  such  severe 
tests.  They  have  to  be  of  a  certain  height  and  weight  and 
muscle,  and  their  hearts  and  lungs  and  organs  have  to  be 
perfect.  And  when  they  pass  that  examination,  they  have 
to  undergo  a  mental  examination  which  excludes  everyone 
not  of  good  intelligence.  When  I  saw  5,000  of  these  young 
fellows  swing  by  in  the  recent  parade  it  made  me  tingle 
from  head  to  foot.  No  such  number  of  perfect  men  was 
ever  seen  in  line  before  anywhere  in  this  world.  And  all 
the  while  I  kept  saying  to  myself,  "  Just  think  of  the 
way  they  have  been  outraged  for  a  year  by  corrupt  scamps 
and  little  pitiful  investigators.  They  have  been  denounced 
in  every  way  because  there  are  a  few  grafters  in  the  force, 
as  though  that  was  anything  extraordinary.  Every  pro- 
fession and  business  calling  has  as  large  a  percentage  of 
grafters,  if  not  larger,  than  exists  in  the  police  force." 

Clarkson  Cowl,  Esq., 

New  York  City. 

167 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

On  Books  and  Reading 

(The  following  is  an  article  published  in  The  Independent. 
It  bears  the  form  of  a  sort  of  talk  with  another — a  method  often 
adopted  bj  the  Mayor  in  dictating  matter.) 

And  so  you  wish  to  visit  me  here  in  my  library  and  get 
from  me  an  article  on  libraries,  and  books,  and  reading, 
and  learned  men  and  bookish  men,  and  bookshops,  and  so 
on.  It  is  a  large  subject.  I  can  only  skim  over  it  with 
an  every  day  recollection.  There  are  so  many  public 
libraries  here  now  that  people  do  not  need  to  buy  books. 
And  these  libraries  have  all  kinds  of  books,  even  rare  and 
curious  ones.  The  number  of  familiar  old  bookshops 
diminished  as  these  public  libraries  grew.  According  to 
Professor  Mahaffy,  there  was  a  bookshop  in  ancient 
Athens.  I  never  think  of  the  burning  of  the  great  library 
of  Alexandria  without  a  pang.  It  is  said  that  when  con- 
sulted by  his  general  who  had  captured  that  city  in  the 
seventh  century  the  Arabian  Caliph  Omar  said  that  if 
the  books  of  the  library  contained  only  what  was  in  the 
Koran  they  were  superfluous,  if  anything  else  they  were 
heretical,  and  that  therefore  in  either  case  they  should  be 
burned.  This  story  was  invented  long  afterwards.  The 
Arabians  were  a  learned  people.  They  were  not  burners 
of  books.  Every  department  of  science  was  enriched  by 
their  learned  men.  Western  civilization  owes  them  much. 
The  very  numerals  in  which  we  keep  our  accounts  we  got 
from  them.  Libraries  preserve  errors  as  well  as  truths. 
I  suppose  there  are  as  many  errors  as  truths  in  them.  The 
errors  as  well  as  the  truths  of  each  age  are  stored  in  books. 
That  written  down  in  books  as  the  height  of  wisdom  in  one 
age  often  becomes  the  height  of  folly  in  the  next.  This 
is  so  in  science,  in  theology,  and  in  everything.  And  so 
books  lead  us  into  many  false  paths  unless  we  are  wary. 
I  suppose  we  all  know  a  few  very  wise  people  who  are  un- 
able to  read  at  all.  There  is  a  large  amount  of  innate 
knowledge  in  all  of  us.  It  develops  with  the  growth  of  our 
minds  and  bodies  from  birth.  It  is  the  same  with  all 

168 


MAYOR  GAYNOITS  LETTERS  AND  SPEECHES 

animals.  Who  taught  the  ant  to  bite  every  grain  of  corn 
she  carries  into  her  hill  lest  it  take  root  and  grow?  She 
did  not  read  it  in  any  book.  But  I  fear  I  am  wandering 
away  from  what  you  want.  Reading,  you  say?  Read- 
ing is  to  no  purpose  without  thinking,  except  for  pastime 
or  amusement.  Reading  is  thinking  with  the  head  of 
another  person  instead  of  your  own.  One  who  reads 
without  thinking  gradually  fritters  away  his  power  of 
thinking.  Reading  may  be  an  aid,  but  to  possess  a 
thought  we  have  to  work  it  out  ourselves,  and  make  it  a 
part  of  ourselves.  The  self -thinker  is  equipped  for  action. 
He  who  reads  without  thinking  is  not.  When  called  upon 
for  action  he  is  all  the  while  trying  to  recollect  the  words 
or  thoughts  of  others  which  he  has  read,  and  to  shape  his 
words  or  acts  thereto.  No  one  ever  did  a  considerable 
work  in  the  world  who  was  not  a  self -thinker.  Too  much 
reading  weakens  the  judgment.  What  we  absorb  by  re- 
flection becomes  part  and  parcel  of  our  mental  processes 
and  comes  forth  spontaneously  for  use  when  the  mind 
enters  the  society  of  facts  or  ideas  to  which  it  belongs. 
Mere  feats  of  memory  are  of  little  or  no  use.  To  be  able 
to  remember  and  repeat  many  names,  or  verses,  or  the 
like,  may  be  likened  to  the  physical  feats  or  tricks  of  acro- 
bats. They  excite  the  same  attention  by  their  novelty, 
and  are  alike  of  little  worth.  The  Roman  General  who 
is  said  to  have  been  able  to  repeat  the  names  of  all  of  his 
soldiers  seems  to  have  had  no  other  distinction.  Absorp- 
tion, not  verbal  memory,  forms  judgment.  There  was 
for  a  long  time  in  this  country  a  distrust  of  scholarly  and 
bookish  men  in  respect  of  business  or  public  affairs.  We 
have  not  altogether  got  over  it  yet.  They  were  called 
"  literary  fellers."  But  history  shows  that  such  men  have 
given  the  best  government  and  achieved  the  best  results 
when  given  the  opportunity.  We  elected  a  learned, 
literary  and  bookish  man  President  of  the  United  States 
the  other  day  in  Woodrow  Wilson.  Such  men  acquit 
themselves  well  when  called  into  government.  But  that 
happens  only  to  a  few.  It  is  the  same  in  general  business 

1G9 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

and  affairs.  Men  who  make  themselves  learned  in  a  cer- 
tain calling  or  business  by  means  of  study  excel  the  men 
of  long  experience  but  without  learning.  Of  the  great 
rulers  who  were  learned  it  is  easy  to  cite  instances.  Alex- 
ander the  Great  was  a  student,  philosopher  and  learned 
man.  He  possessed  all  the  learning  of  his  time.  Aris- 
totle was  his  tutor,  and  he  served  for  a  time  as  his 
amanuensis.  When  he  went  into  Asia  on  his  great  mili- 
tary expedition  he  took  a  retinue  of  learned  men  with  him. 
Wherever  he  went  he  sought  out  the  learned  men  and 
philosophers  and  conversed  with  them.  He  called  to  see 
Diogenes  in  his  tub  at  Corinth,  and  after  conversing  with 
him  said  as  he  turned  away:  '  Were  I  not  Alexander  I 
would  wish  to  be  Diogenes."  Caesar  was  also  a  man  of 
learning,  an  orator,  and  given  to  philosophy.  He  wrote 
a  book  of  apothegms  which  is  unfortunately  lost.  The 
philosophical  mind  has  always  been  prone  to  express 
itself  in  parable,  or  aphorism  or  fable.  As  an  orator  he 
was  capable  of  holding  his  own  against  Cicero.  His 
"  Commentaries  "  have  not  been  excelled  as  a  model  of 
pregnant  narrative.  At  the  same  time  he  could  be  nimble 
and  jocose  of  wit,  as  when  being  hailed  as  king  by  some 
of  the  populace  he  responded  that  his  name  was  not  King 
but  Caesar — King  being  a  sur-name  with  the  Romans  as 
with  us.  The  emperor  Marcus  Aurelius  left  his  philo- 
sophical thoughts  in  writing.  He  seems  never  to  have 
had  any  desire  or  intention  of  publishing  them.  In  the 
midst  of  camps  and  great  affairs  he  mused  over  them  and 
wrote  them  down  on  tablets  as  a  solace  to  his  own  soul. 
He  had  a  true  conception  of  God  and  the  universe.  As  I 
finished  reading  his  book  again  not  long  ago  I  could  not 
help  writing  on  the  flyleaf  as  follows:  "  Consider  that 
the  great  universe,  of  which  thou  art  only  a  trivial  speck, 
is  governed  by  fixed  laws,  and  be  therefore  content  in  all 
things,  and  especially  to  die  at  any  time,  and  abide  God's 
will  of  thee,  whether  of  individual  future  life,  or  dissolu- 
tion into  universal  mind  and  matter."  That  is  the  sum 
and  substance  of  what  his  mind  leaves  other  minds  preg- 

170 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

riant  of.  Napoleon  was  one  of  the  greatest  readers  of 
his  time  and  much  given  to  the  society  of  learned  men. 
He  took  a  large  body  of  scientific  and  learned  men  along 
with  him  in  his  military  expedition  to  Egypt.  When  he 
came  back  he  dressed  in  the  garb  of  the  academicians  for 
a  time  and  consorted  with  men  of  learning.  He  read  in 
his  coach,  as  he  traveled  on  his  campaigns,  and  if  a  book 
impressed  him  as  worthless  he  threw  it  out  of  the  window. 
It  is  said  his  route  could  be  traced  by  the  litter  of  books 
along  the  roadside.  But  I  suppose  this  is  exaggeration. 
Lord  Rosebery  in  his  book  on  Napoleon  says  that  he  had 
a  library  of  800  volumes  on  the  field  of  Waterloo.  Did 
you  ever  hear  of  a  more  astonishing  thing?  You  cannot 
help  doubting  it,  you  say.  Nor  can  I.  But  it  is  true  that 
he  carried  many  books  about  with  him,  and  had  special 
editions  printed  and  bound  for  his  own  library. 
Frederick  the  Great  was  a  literary  man.  He  kept  Vol- 
taire, the  greatest  thinker  and  literary  genius  of  that  age, 
by  him  for  a  time  to  commune  with  him  over  poetry,  phil- 
osophy and  learning.  Do  you  not  think  the  minds  of 
these  two  men  were  much  alike?  No?  Well,  it  has  always 
seemed  so  to  me.  They  were  each  what  some  call  queer, 
jealous  of  each  other,  and  spat  and  quarreled  like  cats. 
Queen  Elizabeth  was  learned  to  a  singular  and  rare  de- 
gree. To  the  end  of  her  long  life  she  had  set  hours  for 
study  and  reflection.  She  was  fond  of  men  of  learning 
and  philosophy.  There  never  seems  to  have  been  any 
objection  to  literary  men  in  public  affairs  or  as  statesmen 
in  Great  Britain.  England  presents  a  long  list  of  literary 
men  who  came  to  eminence  in  public  affairs,  as  Burke, 
Disraeli,  Gladstone,  and  I  hope  you  will  let  me  add  Bal- 
four.  His  book,  "  Foundations  of  Belief,"  has  been  taken 
too  little  note  of.  Nor  should  the  present  Churchill  be 
omitted.  Gladstone  was  the  most  bookish  of  English 
statesmen.  He  thrust  his  spoon  into  every  dish.  But  he 
was  superficial.  He  will  not  survive  either  as  orator  or 
writer.  He  was  a  rhetorician,  but  not  an  orator.  Seldom 
have  the  rhetorician  and  the  orator  united  in  the  same  per- 

171 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

son.  Most  of  the  world's  orators  have  been  only  plain, 
some  of  them  poor,  speakers.  It  is  hard  to  believe  that 
Demosthenes  being  asked  for  the  first,  then  the  second, 
and  then  the  third  requisites  of  an  orator,  answered  each 
time  "  action."  Instead  of  being  a  requisite,  action  can 
be  dispensed  with.  The  three  requisites  for  an  orator  are, 
first,  the  man  (an  honest  man  with  a  purpose),  second,  a 
message  to  deliver  (something  to  say),  and  last  and  least, 
the  way  of  saying  it.  Some  orators  have  been  stutterers. 
Lord  Bacon  says  Moses  stuttered.  Rhetoricians  have 
always  been  distrusted  as  dishonest.  Orators  never.  The 
Roman  Republic  banished  the  rhetoricians  several  times. 
How  would  it  do  for  us  to  do  the  like?  The  name  of  Lord 
Bacon  cannot  be  omitted  when  learned  men  and  philoso- 
phers who  were  eminent  in  public  affairs  are  mentioned. 
His  writings  are  one  of  the  world's  marvels.  It  is  seldom 
so  prodigious  a  mind  has  ever  been  conferred  on  any  of 
the  sons  of  men.  It  might  not  be  easy  to  give  a  list  of 
literary  men  among  Irish  statesmen.  A  few  of  them 
were  orators.  Parnell  does  not  seem  to  have  read  any- 
thing. He  was  the  bookless  statesman.  He  was  ignorant 
even  of  Irish  history.  And  he  was  neither  rhetorician  nor 
orator.  We  had  philosophers  and  literary  men  in  pub- 
lic affairs  in  this  country  at  the  beginning,  more  than  later 
on.  Benjamin  Franklin  stands  out  incomparable  at  the 
head  of  them  all.  Jefferson  was  a  great  student  as  the 
writings  he  left  after  him  attest.  He  was  also  a  phil- 
osopher. Hamilton  does  not  seem  to  have  had  even  a 
touch  of  philosophy,  but  in  political  economy,  in  history, 
and  in  the  art  of  government  was  the  ablest  man  of  his 
time  in  all  the  world.  Nearly  all  of  the  men  developed  by 
the  French  Revolution  were  learned  or  literary  men.  The 
only  exception  I  can  think  of  at  this  moment  is  the  brewer 
Santerre,  whose  name  survives  only  because  he  had  a  voice 
which  could  be  heard  all  over  Saint- Antoine,  and,  as  1 
think  some  say,  half  way  out  to  Saint-Cloud.  We  find 
Robespierre  at  the  age  of  nineteen  corresponding  with 
Benjamin  Franklin  on  a  scientific  topic.  Even  Marat 

172 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

was  an  educated  and  scientific  man.  He  was  an  eminent 
and  fashionable  physician  in  Soho  Square,  London,  for 
ten  years.  He  returned  to  France  to  participate  in  the 
French  revolution.  Carlyle  tries  to  damn  him  by  calling 
him  "  horse-leech."  He  also  pictures  him  as  unclean, 
even  nasty,  in  his  person.  He  hints  even  worse  than  he 
says.  You  may  know  what  I  mean  if  you  read  Gibbon's 
Latin  footnote  concerning  the  same  thing  said  of  the  Em- 
peror Julian.  But,  all  the  same,  Marat  was  murdered 
while  in  his  bath  tub  in  his  own  home — rather  conclusive 
proof  that  he  was  of  cleanly  personal  habit.  At  the  head 
of  the  Champlain  delegation  which  recently  came  over 
here  from  France  was  Hanotaux,  formerly  head  of  the 
French  Foreign  Office.  He  is  a  bookish  and  literary  man. 
He  is  often  seen  in  the  bookshops  of  Paris,  or  groping 
along  the  long  row  of  little  book  stalls  on  the  opposite 
side  of  the  Seine — more  than  a  thousand  in  number.  The 
late  John  Hay  in  this  country  was  also  the  better  equipped 
as  Secretary  of  State  by  his  literary  accomplishments. 
But  I  must  not  run  on  this  way  further.  You  want  me  to 
say  something  about  my  own  library  and  books  and  read- 
ing? I  would  rather  pass  that  over.  I  have  collected 
my  books  one  by  one.  As  I  wanted  a  book  I  bought  it. 
In  that  way  a  library  grows  fast  enough  and  you  have  the 
books  you  want.  And  your  library  is  part  of  you  all  the 
time.  My  advice  is  not  to  buy  a  whole  library  at  once. 
Yes,  I  have  spent  some  time  in  the  old  bookshops  of  New 
York.  They  are  now,  alas,  nearly  all  passed  away.  I 
saw  men  in  them  who  have  since  come  to  eminence.  It 
would  serve  no  purpose  to  enumerate  the  names  of  these 
old  bookshops.  You  could  get  any  sort  of  book  at  Leg- 
gatt's.  One  of  the  last  of  them  was  Miller's  in  Nassau 
street.  How  he  liked  to  talk  with  you  about  books,  and 
what  infinite  trouble  he  would  take  to  get  a  book  for  you. 
One  day  I  went  in  and  asked  him  for  "  Goschen  on  Ex- 
change." He  scratched  his  head  and  said  he  did  not  have 
it,  but  would  get  it  and  send  it  to  me  next  day.  After 
three  days  I  got  a  letter  from  him  that  there  was  not  a 

173 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

copy  of  it  to  be  found  in  the  city  of  New  York,  and  that 
he  had  sent  to  England  for  it.  I  had  recently  heard  the 
debate  in  the  British  Parliament  in  1893  on  the  closing  of 
the  Indian  mint  to  the  coinage  of  silver,  and  the  speech  of 
Balfour  on  bimetalism,  and  had  bought  and  read  the  best 
books  on  that  subject.  I  then  wanted  to  read  the  lead- 
ing books  on  exchange,  as  the  growing  disparity  between 
gold  and  silver  was  dislocating  the  international  exchanges 
of  the  world.  I  mention  this  incident  as  it  made  me  doubt- 
ful of  following  the  lead  of  our  bankers  and  financiers  and 
business  men  here  on  these  subjects,  then  much  rife  among 
us,  for  if  they  were  students  thereof  the  standard  books 
treating  of  them  would  have  been  for  sale  here.  By  the 
way,  Goschen  is  an  example  of  how  a  man  of  learning  on 
any  subject  may  come  to  the  front  in  public  affairs  in 
England.  The  appearance  of  his  book  on  exchange 
caused  him  to  be  made  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  over 
the  heads  of  others,  at  a  bound — per  saltum,  as  the  phrase 
is.  Uncut  editions  are  annoying  to  those  who  frequent 
bookshops.  And  the  "  expurgated  edition  "  —what  shall 
I  say  of  that?  Just  think  of  an  expurgated  edition  of 
Rabelais.  I  picked  one  up  in  a  bookshop  in  London  some 
years  ago.  I  think  it  had  a  very  short  sale.  What  places 
of  infinite  solace  the  old  bookshops  were.  You  ask  me  to 
give  a  list  of  ten  or  fifteen  of  the  greatest  books.  I  would 
rather  not  try  to  do  that.  But  I  have  no  objection  to  giv- 
ing you  a  list  of  the  books  which  have  affected  or  shaped 
me  the  most.  They  are  as  follows:  The  Bible,  Euclid, 
Shakespeare,  Hume's  History  of  England  (especially  the 
notes),  Homer's  Iliad,  Milton  ("Paradise  Lost"), 
Cervantes  ("Don  Quixote"),  Rabelais,  "Gil  Bias," 
Franklin's  Autobiography  and  Letters,  Plutarch's  Lives, 
The  Autobiography  of  Benvenuto  Cellini,  Gibbon's  "  De- 
cline and  Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire,"  Adam  Smith's 
'  Wealth  of  Nations,"  and  Bacon's  Works.  I  should  add 
the  leading  books  which  deal  with  what  I  may  call  the  phil- 
osophy of  history,  such  as  Draper's  "  Intellectual  De- 
velopment of  Europe,"  Lecky's  "  History  of  European 

174 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

Morals,"  Buckle's  "  History  of  Civilization  "  and  the  late 
Emil  Reich's  "  Success  Among  Nations."     The  "  Imita- 
tion of  Christ."  filled  with  religious  philosophy  line  after 
line,  should  not  be  omitted.     More  copies  of  it  have  been 
read  in  the  Christian  world  than  of  any  other  book  save 
the  Bible.     It  has  soothed  the  hearts  of  more  than  forty 
generations  of  Christians.     The  author  of  it  is  not  known, 
with  certainty.     Protestants  and  Catholics  claim  it  and 
read  it  alike.     The  Bible  is  incomparably  the  greatest  book 
of  all.     The  philosophy,  the  poetry,  the  imagery,  the  ele- 
vation of  thought,  of  the  Old  Testament  have  never  been 
approached.     No    one   has   since   come   into   the   world 
capable  of  writing  the  Twenty-third  Psalm,  for  instance. 
By  the  way,  Shakespeare  was  born  on  the  day  Cervantes 
died,  wasn't  he?     Some  of  the  commentators  on  Shakes- 
peare say  that  the  word  "  hand-saw  "  in  Hamlet  is  a 
copyist's  error  for  "  hernsaw,"  some  sort  of  a  bird.     It  oc- 
curs in  the  passage  "  I  know  a  hawk  from  a  handsaw." 
But  here  is  the  same  thing  in  "  Don  Quixote,"  namely, 
'  There  is  some  difference  between  a  hawk  and  a  hand- 
saw."    The  most  jaunty  and  nimble  piece  of  narrative  in 
our  language,  if  not  in  any  other,  is  Lord  Bacon's  "  New 
Atlantis."     Just  read  it  and  see.     To  bring  your  style 
down  from  stilts,  and  make  it  easy  and  plain,  read  New- 
man's "  Apologia."     We  must  not  fail  to  mention  Bur- 
ton's "  Anatomy  of  Melancholy,"  which  is  the  greatest 
collection  of  curious  learning  to  be  found  in  any  book, 
ancient  or  modern.     It  is  a  marvel  of  learning  and  re- 
search.    The  Baconians  claim  that  Bacon  wrote  it  as  well 
as  the  Shakespeare  plays.     They  say  they  trace  his  cypher 
through  it.     I  hope  you  will  not  think  I  am  loquacious  if 
I  tell  you  how  I  once  convinced  three  of  my  four  associates 
when  I  was  a  Justice  of  the  Appellate  Division  of  the  Su- 
preme Court  by  citing  Burton's  "  Anatomy  of  Melan- 
choly "  as  an  authority.     It  was  a  divorce  case  against  a 
man.     The  proof  showed  that  he  met  the  woman  at  the 
railroad  station,  that  they  came  together  in  a  hack  with 
their  baggage  to  the  hotel,  that  the  man  registered  them 

175 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

as  man  and  wife,  and  that  they  went  to  the  bedroom  as- 
signed to  them.  One  of  the  judges  wrote  an  opinion 
that  this  evidence  was  not  sufficient.  I  wrote  an  opinion 
that  the  legal  inference  of  misconduct  could  and  should  be 
drawn  from  it,  that  they  did  not  go  there  to  say  their 
prayers,  and  cited  that  passage  of  the  "  Anatomy  of  Mel- 
ancholy "  which  says  of  a  man  under  such  conditions, 
"  It  is  presumed  he  saith  not  a  paternoster."  The  case 
is  known  as  the  "  Paternoster  case."  Now  we  cannot  keep 
on  this  way,  and  maybe  we  might  as  well  stop  here.  We 
have  looked  all  along  the  shelves,  and  you  see  that  some 
of  my  books  are  below  the  mark.  If  they  had  been  in  Don 
Quixote's  library  when  his  books  were  put  on  trial  by  the 
curate  and  the  barber,  after  he  got  home  from  his  first 
sally  and  was  put  to  bed  by  his  housekeeper  and  nurse,  I 
am  quite  certain  they  would  have  been  burned  up  in  the 
same  heap  with  the  foolish  books  they  condemned  and 
committed  to  the  flames.  The  comparatively  few  books 
which  were  printed  in  the  first  century  or  less  after  the  art 
of  printing  was  discovered  are  called  the  "  Incunabula." 
The  images  of  the  minds  of  writers  are  preserved  forever 
in  their  books,  while  images  of  the  body  are  lost  after  a 
few  ages.  I  am  all  the  time  wondering  if  in  the  excava- 
tions of  houses  at  Pompeii  and  other  places  they  will  not 
finally  discover  the  lost  books  of  Livy.  Yes,  artistically 
bound  books  are  great  sources  of  pleasure.  I  have  not 
talked  with  anyone  on  that  subject  since  the  death  of  the 
late  William  Matthews.  He  had  a  choice  collection  of  ex- 
quisitely bound  books.  As  good  an  authority  as  I  know 
on  that  subject,  and  particularly  on  inlaid  books,  is  Mr. 
Daniel  Treadwell,  who  still  survives  among  us  at  a  fine 
old  age.  How  do  I  read?  If  the  book  be  worth  while, 
always  pencil  in  hand.  Many  of  my  books  are  spoiled  in 
that  way.  Just  look  at  them.  Yes,  I  often  copy  into 
notebooks  the  passages  I  mark.  See  this  passage  marked 
in  the  Odyssey — how  Ulysses  in  his  wanderings  sighed  to 
see  again  "  the  smoke  rising  from  the  hearths  of  his  native 
land."  And  this  noted  on  the  margin,  that  "  When  he  es- 

176 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

caped  from  the  den  of  Cyclops  he  did  not  go  back  for  his 
cap  and  belt."  He  was  out  of  danger  and  knew  enough 
to  stay  there,  unlike  some  other  people.  There  are  a  large 
number  of  proverbs  and  wise  maxims  in  "  Don  Quixote  " 
— more  than  in  any  other  book  I  can  now  think  of  save  the 
Bible.  See  this  curious  one  I  have  marked:  "  Between 
the  yea  and  the  nay  of  a  woman  I  would  not  undertake 
to  thrust  the  point  of  a  needle."  And  here  is  this 
marked:  "  The  mountains  breed  learned  men,  and  phil- 
osophers are  to  be  found  in  the  huts  of  shepherds."  But 
we  cannot  go  into  this.  I  have  several  times  thought  of 
publishing  a  full  collection  of  them. 

The  Parks 

June  12,  1913. 

Dear  Mr.  Davis:  I  read  your  booklet  on  the  parks 
through  last  night,  and  derived  much  profit  and  satisfac- 
tion from  it.  It  is  the  best  statement  on  the  subject  that 
exists,  I  think.  I  notice  that  it  was  written  in  1897,  which 
accounts  for  the  parks  of  three  boroughs  being  left  out. 
I  only  wish  you  had  the  time  to  write  a  similar  paper  with 
regard  to  the  parks  in  those  three  boroughs. 

There  is  no  city  in  the  world,  I  think,  which  has  so 
many  natural  parks  and  breathing  places.  I  have  some- 
times thought  we  could  get  along  without  our  large  parks, 
on  account  of  the  natural  places  for  recreation  and  breath- 
ing which  we  have.  The  Hudson  River,  the  Bay,  Coney 
Island,  Rockaway,  Long  Island  Sound,  and  the  shores 
of  these  waters,  not  to  mention  others,  are  all  natural 
parks.  I  suppose  one  hundred  people  go  to  these  places 
to  one  that  goes  into  our  large  parks. 

I  have  sometimes  thought  that  the  Bronx  Parks  were 
too  large.  It  is  a  long  walk  to  get  into  them.  Would  it 
not  be  better  to  have  smaller  parks? 

I  think  that  Prospect  Park  is  the  most  beautiful  park 
in  the  whole  city.  When  I  consider  that  park,  and  the 
continuation  of  it  by  the  splendid  driveway  to  the  ocean, 

177 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

I  think  there  is  nothing  to  equal  it  in  the  world.  I  have 
seen  nothing  to  equal  it.  And  then  its  approach  by  the 
great  Eastern  Parkway  is  also  grand.  And  at  its  prin- 
cipal entrance  is  one  of  the  noblest  arches  in  the  world. 

Gherardi  Davis,  Esq., 

New  York. 


Tolstoy  and  Henry  George 

June  12,  1913. 

Dear  Mr.  Bernstein :  I  thank  you  very  much  for  the 
copy  of  your  book,  "  With  Master  Minds."  It  was  in- 
tensely interesting  to  me,  and  I  could  not  lay  it  down 
until  I  had  finished  it.  You  portray  Metchnikoff  with 
much  more  simplicity  and  homeliness  of  character  than  I 
had  any  idea  he  possessed.  I  had  formed  an  entirely  dif- 
ferent opinion  of  his  personality  from  his  brilliant  scien- 
tific writings.  Count  Witte  has  always  been  a  fascinating 
subject  to  me.  Your  article  still  leaves  that  impression 
on  my  mind  undiminished.  He  was  a  very  brilliant  man. 
The  way  he  handled  himself  as  the  Peace  Representative 
of  Russia  at  Portsmouth  has  rarely  been  equalled  in 
diplomacy.  From  what  you  disclose,  he  was  evidently 
backed  up  by  his  government.  Notwithstanding  the 
pressure  brought  to  bear  from  this  country,  as  disclosed 
by  the  despatches  which  you  print,  the  government  of  the 
Czar  never  flinched,  but  stood  on  the  proposition  that  if 
Japan  wanted  to  make  peace  without  asking  for  an  in- 
demnity, peace  would  be  made,  and  that  otherwise  the 
war  might  go  right  on.  It  seems  that  Witte  was  not 
bluffing  at  all,  but  meant  just  what  he  said.  I  suppose  I 
ought  not  to  say  it,  but  I  was  never  satisfied  with  Tolstoy, 
and  after  reading  your  chapter  on  him  I  am  still  in  the 
same  frame  of  mind.  He  was  never  able  to  see  that 
Shakespeare  was  above  the  ordinary,  or  worth  while. 
Just  think  of  that.  Is  it  not  proof  that  his  own  mind  was 
not  of  full  stature?  I  have  never  been  able  to  see  that  he 

ITS 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

had  any  settled  philosophy.  It  always  seemed  to  me  that 
he  was  a  man  of  generalities,  and,  as  you  know,  error 
lurks  in  generalities.  He  had  no  fixed  principles.  Nor 
had  he  any  coherent  philosophy.  Nor  did  he  have  even 
an  ordinary  understanding  of  economical  matters.  He 
stated  to  you,  as  he  often  stated  to  others,  that  the  Henry 
George  theory  of  taxation  put  into  practice  would  give 
the  Russian  peasant  farmers  free  use  of  the  soil.  I  have 
never  been  able  to  see  how  he  spelled  that  out.  I  do  not 
think  he  understood  the  Henry  George  theory.  Henry 
George  never  saw  any  such  thing  in  his  theory.  Put  in 
practice  it  might  help  the  Russian  small  farmer,  the  same 
as  all  tenants,  a  little.  The  Henry  George  theory  is  to 
value  the  bare  land,  i.  e.,  the  land  without  the  buildings 
and  improvements,  separately,  and  put  a  tax  thereon 
equal  to  the  ground  rent,  and  thereby  absorb  the  entire 
ground  rent  into  the  public  treasury,  instead  of  having 
such  ground  rent  kept  by  the  proprietor  or  landlord,  as 
now.  That  would  limit  him  to  collecting  and  retaining 
for  himself  only  the  rent  for  the  buildings  and  improve- 
ments. Of  course  he  would  have  to  collect  all  the  rent, 
but  the  ground  rent  he  would  have  to  pay  over  to  the  gov- 
ernment as  taxes.  Under  this  system  the  tenant  would 
have  to  pay  the  very  same  amount  of  rent,  namely,  rent 
for  both  land  and  improvements.  That  the  landlord 
would  have  to  pay  the  ground  rent  over  to  the  govern- 
ment would  not  help  the  tenant,  except  in  so  far  as  it 
might  benefit  the  whole  community.  And  this  method  of 
taxation  would  help  the  whole  community,  except  the 
landlords,  by  reducing  or  doing  away  with  taxes  on  prop- 
erty other  than  the  bare  land.  Henry  George  contended 
that  these  ground  rents  taken  as  taxes  would  prove  to  be 
sufficient  to  pay  all  the  expenses  of  government,  so  that 
all  other  taxes  could  be  done  away  with.  Whether  this 
would  prove  true  or  not,  it  is  true  that  the  amount  of  these 
ground  rents  would  lessen  other  taxes  to  that  extent,  and 
in  that  way  the  tenants  would  be  benefited  to  some  ex- 
tent, namely,  like  the  rest  of  the  community.  I  do  not 

179 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

see  how  tenants  would  be  benefited  any  further  than  that. 
Tolstoy  in  his  enthusiasm  very  often,  or  most  of  the  time, 
had,  it  seems  to  me,  a  very  wrong  notion  of  things.  He 
does  not  seem  to  have  studied  or  understood  anything 
deeply,  unless  the  human  heart,  and  I  think  he  was  very 
often  in  a  state  of  exaggeration  in  that  respect.  His  esti- 
mate of  men  and  of  literature  was  very  much  at  fault. 
Just  think  of  him  rating  Tucker,  of  Boston,  the  head  of 
the  anarchists  in  this  country,  as  a  great  writer.  I  do  not 
see  any  signs  of  greatness  in  anything  that  Tucker  wrote. 
Think  of  Tucker  compared  with  Shakespeare! 

But  my  intention  was  to  express  my  thanks  to  you 
for  your  book,  and  not  to  go  into  a  discussion  of  it  or  of 
the  men  you  portray. 

Herman  Bernstein,  Esq., 

New  York  City. 

Literature  of  Weights  and  Measures 

June  17, 1913. 

Dear  Dr.  Kunz:  Mr.  Spencer  has  shown  me  your  let- 
ter of  June  12th  commending  the  adoption  of  the  New 
International  Metric  Carat  of  200  milligrams  by  the 
Bureau  of  Weights  and  Measures  of  this  city  for  the 
measure  of  weight  of  precious  gems.  It  does  me  good 
to  have  you  take  notice  of  that  official  act.  The  great  work 
of  securing  uniform  and  honest  weights  and  measures  for 
this  city,  which  was  begun  very  soon  after  I  came  into 
the  office  of  Mayor,  and  has  been  continued  ever  since, 
is  now  almost  complete.  You  would  know  that  without 
my  saying  so,  since  we  have  got  as  far  as  establishing  a 
standard  method  of  weighing  precious  gems.  The  work 
has  been  an  intensely  interesting  one  to  me.  Some  years 
ago  I  read  the  exquisite  report  of  John  Quincy  Adams  to 
the  Senate  of  the  United  States  on  weights  and  measures. 
The  subject  fascinated  me,  and  I  read  other  literature  on 
the  same  subject.  So  that  when  I  became  Mayor  I  was 

180 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

prepared  to  take  up  the  matter  and  do  away  with  the 
frightful  dishonesty  in  weights  and  measures  which  pre- 
vailed all  over  this  city.  And  you  know  how  the  Bureau 
of  Weights  and  Measures  was  then  officered  and  manned, 
and  what  they  were  doing  there,  or  not  doing,  rather. 
From  the  earliest  times  one  of  the  first  acts  of  govern- 
ment has  been  to  establish  honest  and  just  standards  of 
weights  and  measures.  You  find  much  on  the  subject  in 
ancient  literature.  It  recurs  again  and  again  in  the  Old 
Testament.  "  A  false  balance  is  an  abomination  to  the 
Lord;  but  a  just  weight  is  His  delight,"  as  we  read  in 
Proverbs  (11 — 1).  It  has  a  literature  all  its  own.  The 
work  of  the  Department  of  Weights  and  Measures  here 
during  the  last  three-and-a-half  years  is  now  being  copied 
not  only  all  over  this  State  but  all  over  this  country. 

Dr.  George  F.  Kunz, 

Manhattan. 


Arresting  Children 

June  17, 1913. 

Dear  Mr.  Collins:  I  am  most  glad  to  receive  your 
letter.  It  encourages  me  to  continue  my  efforts  to  teach 
the  police  not  to  arrest  children  unnecessarily,  and  bring 
them  into  court,  or  any  one  else,  for  that  matter.  But 
especially  children  should  not  be  brought  into  court  under 
arrest  unless  it  be  absolutely  necessary.  Nothing  has 
such  a  tendency  to  make  a  boy  a  criminal  as  to  arrest  him 
and  bring  him  into  court,  and  of  all  things  to  lock  him  up. 
When  he  has  had  that  experience  once  or  twice  or  three 
times,  he  is  quite  certain  to  become  a  criminal.  I  have 
pretty  well  done  away  with  all  that  sort  of  thing  in  the 
city  of  New  York.  I  have  been  teaching  the  police  not 
to  make  such  arrests,  and  not  to  make  any  arrests  unless 
necessary,  during  all  this  clamor  against  them  which  has 
been  going  on.  I  enclose  to  you  the  preface  which  I  re- 
cently wrote  to  the  new  digest  of  laws  and  ordinances 

181 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

which  was  prepared  for  the  police.  These  reforms  can 
be  worked  out  only  by  constant  attention.  You  cannot  do 
them  all  at  once.  I  have  tried  to  do  them  little  by  little, 
teaching  the  10,000  men  on  the  force  with  a  spoon,  as  it 
were.  They  had  been  so  long  taught  to  arrest  everybody, 
including  children,  whom  they  saw  committing  trifles,  that 
the  abuse  could  not  be  abated  except  by  patience  and  time. 
I  would  that  there  were  more  people  in  this  city  who  under- 
stood this  thing  as  you  do.  But  I  think  all  of  our  people 
are  now  coming  to  see  what  we  have  been  doing  in  the 
Police  Department.  By  doing  away  with  these  petty  and 
unnecessary  arrests,  I  have  diminished  the  number  of  ar- 
rests in  this  city  over  100,000  a  year.  A  man  of  your  ex- 
perience can  tell  how  much  suffering,  how  much  anguish, 
how  much  provocation  to  a  criminal  life  was  prevented 
thereby. 

John  C.  Collins,  Esq., 

New  Haven,  Conn. 


Lincoln 

June  17,  1913. 

Dear  Mr.  Cain:  Your  interesting  letter  of  June  16th 
is  at  hand.  But  you  must  not  compare  me  to  Lincoln. 
That  is  too  much.  I  do  not  deserve  it.  It  is  true  that  dur- 
ing the  latter  half  of  his  first  term,  and  especially  at  the 
end  thereof,  all  the  dogs,  as  you  put  it,  were  barking  and 
snapping  at  him.  But  let  us  not  call  them  dogs.  They 
were  human  beings,  with  all  the  meanness,  all  the  vanities, 
that  belong  to  human  nature.  We  are  all  just  as  God 
made  us,  only  some  of  us  a  great  deal  worse,  as  the  old 
proverb  says.  I  believe  every  newspaper  in  the  City  of 
New  York  denounced  Lincoln  as  inefficient,  and  even  in- 
competent, and  declared  that  he  should  not  be  renomi- 
nated,  and  could  not  be  re-elected.  He  was  blamed  for 
every  fraudulent  army  contract,  for  every  grafter,  for 
every  blunder  of  his  Generals  in  the  field,  for  everything 

182 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

that  happened.  His  biographers  unite  in  telling  us  the 
keenness  of  his  suffering.  The  leaders  of  his  party  wanted 
to  get  rid  of  him.  Each  of  them  thought  he  was  a  greater 
man  than  "  old  Abe,"  and  they  did  not  hesitate  to  tell 
their  friends  so.  They  even  said  he  was  an  old  fool  and 
a  buffoon.  But  he  had  more  philosophy  in  his  little  finger 
than  all  of  them  had  in  all  of  their  bodies  and  brains  put 
together.  And  the  people  knew  it.  And  they  renomi- 
nated  him  and  overwhelmingly  elected  him.  After  he  was 
renominated  those  who  ridiculed  and  decried  him  further 
nagged,  fretted  and  humiliated  him  by  forming  a  national 
committee  to  ask  him  to  withdraw  so  as  to  save  the  wreck 
which  would  follow  his  defeat.  This  is  all  matter  of  his- 
tory. But  it  is  not  my  case  as  you  want  me  to  think.  I 
am  not  to  be  compared  to  Lincoln,  simply  because  I  am 
howled  at  and  abused  by  newspaper  proprietors — by  the 
two  miserable  little  Pulitzers  of  the  World,  for  instance. 
Of  course  all  the  little  Pulitzers  of  that  day  howled  at 
and  ridiculed  Lincoln,  and  did  all  they  could  to  thwart 
him.  But  the  "  big  "  newspaper  proprietors  and  editors 
did  the  same.  All  I  can  claim  for  myself  is  that  I  am 
just  a  plodder,  and  have  plodded  along  as  well  as  I  could. 
I  know  that  I  have  not  been  able  to  do  much,  but  at  the 
same  time  I  know  that  I  have  done  the  best  I  could.  I 
have  had  a  pretty  tough  time  of  it,  but  I  have  borne  it  the 
best  I  could.  Except  for  the  feelings  of  my  family  I 
would  be  willing  to  bear  anything.  The  very  worst  would 
not  cost  me  a  moment's  sleep  or  pain. 

Jewett  P.  Cain,  Esq., 

New  York  City. 

Segregation   of   Vice 

June  19,  1913. 

Dear  Sir:  Your  letter  of  June  18th  is  at  hand.  You 
ask  me  about  several  questions  dealing  with  the  social  evil. 
You  will  find  that  in  previous  letters  of  mine  which  have 

183 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

been  published  I  have  answered  all  your  questions.  I  have 
often  said  the  method  of  breaking  into  houses  without  war- 
rants enabled  the  police  to  collect  graft.  I  have  been  say- 
ing it  for  ten  years.  Do  you  not  know  that  perfectly 
well  ?  You  ask  me  whether  it  would  not  be  better  to  segre- 
gate the  evil.  How  would  you  do  it?  It  is  very  easy  to 
mark  off  a  district  by  law  or  ordinance.  But  how  would 
you  get  the  women  to  go  there  and  stay  there?  Will  you 
undertake  the  job  to  catch  them  and  bring  them  into  that 
district?  And  after  you  get  them  there,  who  will  keep 
them  there?  And  if  you  could  get  and  keep  them  there 
do  you  suppose  that  the  men  would  go  there  when  every- 
body would  be  pointing  at  them  and  laughing  at  them  for 
going  into  that  district  ?  You  ask  me  whether  it  would  not 
be  better  to  license  such  women?  No,  sir,  I  do  not  be- 
lieve in  licensing  vice.  And  you  ask  whether  the  women 
should  not  be  inspected.  How  could  you  find  them  to  in- 
spect them?  If  there  were  a  law  for  such  inspections  how 
many  out  of  the  whole  number  would  come  forward  for 
inspection?  And  if  they  did  not  come  forward  how  do 
you  think  they  could  be  found?  But  I  cannot  cover  the 
whole  matter  with  you.  I  say  this  much  only  to  ask  you 
to  think  a  little  about  the  thing.  It  is  easy  to  pass  laws 
and  ordinances,  and  to  talk  and  say  this  ought  to  be  so 
and  that  ought  to  be  so,  but  the  doing  of  it  is  another 
thing.  No  law  should  be  passed  which  is  not  enforceable. 

B.  S.  Barrett,  Esq., 

Brooklyn. 

Clamor  and  the  Administration  of  Justice 

June  26,  1913. 

Dear  Mr.  Stearns:  I  thank  you  very  much  for  your 
letter.  The  district  attorneys  and  certain  judges  over 
here  in  the  county  of  New  York  have  for  years  been  re- 
sponding to  newspaper  clamor  and  framing  up  indict- 
ments against  innocent  persons,  as  in  the  case  of  Hyde, 
which  you  mention.  It  is  so  atrocious  that  one  can  hardly 

184 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

realize  that  such  a  thing  could  exist,  but  it  does  exist  here. 
It  has  gone  on  for  years  in  answer  to  periodical  corrupt 
newspaper  clamor.  And  those  who  do  it  do  it  to  obtain 
popularity.  But  instead  of  obtaining  popularity  they 
have  always  ruined  themselves  in  the  estimation  of  all  in- 
telligent and  just  minds,  and  in  the  end  it  is  always  the 
estimation  of  the  community  at  large.  The  people  of 
this  country  will  not  stand  for  any  such  business.  I  sup- 
pose you  know  we  have  four  counties  here  in  the  city  of 
New  York,  each  with  its  own  district  attorney,  grand 
juries,  and  courts.  This  practice  of  framing  up  criminal 
cases  exists  only  here  in  the  county  of  New  York.  In  the 
other  three  counties,  namely,  Kings,  Queens,  and  Rich- 
mond, no  such  thing  has  ever  happened  or  could  happen. 
In  those  counties  you  could  not  get  a  grand  jury  together 
which  would  permit  itself  to  be  led  by  the  nose  by  the 
district  attorney  or  the  judge  to  find  such  an  indictment. 
Over  here  the  district  attorney  and  the  judge  tell  the  grand 
juries  that  they  are  their  legal  advisers  and  that  they  must 
do  as  they  advise.  It  is  a  falsehood.  There  is  no  such  law. 
On  the  contrary,  while  the  grand  jury  has  to  listen  to  their 
advice,  it  is  then  the  duty  and  prerogative  of  the  grand 
jurors  to  do  as  their  judgment  dictates.  They  cannot 
be  required  or  forced  by  any  advice  to  find  an  indictment. 
That  in  the  end  is  for  them  to  say  in  their  sound  judg- 
ment and  discretion.  The  grand  jury  which  indicted 
Hyde  was  worked  on  for  two  months  before  it  could  be 
induced  by  a  bare  majority  of  one  to  indict  him.  The  in- 
dictment stated  no  criminal  offense,  there  was  no  evidence 
of  any  criminal  offense,  and  there  was  no  criminal  offense. 
So  that  when  it  got  to  the  appeal  judges  they  did  not 
merely  reverse  the  conviction,  but  they  said  that  there  was 
no  offense  at  all  in  the  whole  matter,  and  pitched  the 
whole  thing  out  of  the  courts.  Indeed,  they  said  that  what 
Hyde  did  it  was  his  duty  to  do.  Just  think  of  a  district 
attorney  and  a  judge  who  would  under  such  circumstances 
cater  to  newspaper  clamor  and  dictation  even  to  the  con- 
viction of  a  man  innocent  of  any  criminal  offense  what- 

185 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

ever.  To  do  justice  to  all  of  our  other  judges  hereabouts 
every  one  of  them  said  that  there  was  no  offense.  But 
those  engaged  in  the  business  thought  they  would  make 
themselves  popular  by  conforming  to  the  clamor  of  cer- 
tain corrupt  newspaper  proprietors  who  are  supposed  to 
have  much  power  here  but  in  fact  have  none.  Such  a  con- 
dition is  dangerous  to  the  liberties  of  every  one.  All  that 
Chamberlain  Hyde  did  was  to  ask  several  banks  who  had 
deposits  of  city  money  to  make  loans  to  the  Carnegie 
Trust  Company  in  order  to  tide  that  company  over  diffi- 
culties, at  the  same  time  promising  meanwhile  to  leave 
such  city  deposits  with  them.  The  city  had  eight  hundred 
thousand  dollars  deposited  in  the  Carnegie  Trust  Com- 
pany, and  it  was  the  duty  of  the  Chamberlain  to  do  what 
he  could  to  sustain  that  bank  in  order  to  save  the  city's 
money.  The  Secretary  of  the  United  States  Treasury 
does  this  every  time  there  is  trouble  in  Wall  Street.  He 
deposits  money  with  certain  banks  with  the  understanding 
that  at  his  request  they  must  sustain  other  banks  by  loans. 
Hyde  did  not  ask  any  bank  to  make  a  loan  without  se- 
curity. On  the  contrary,  all  the  loans  were  made  on  abso- 
lute security,  so  that  they  were  paid  at  once  as  they  be- 
came due.  Just  think  of  a  man  being  convicted  under 
such  circumstances  as  that.  He  had  the  right  to  draw  the 
city's  deposits  out  of  any  banks  as  he  saw  fit,  and  deposit 
the  same  with  the  Carnegie  Trust  Company,  on  good  se- 
curity, of  course.  Instead  he  asked  certain  banks  to  make 
the  loans,  promising  that  he  would  leave  the  city  deposits 
with  them  meanwhile.  But  the  falsehood  was  given  out 
from  day  to  day  as  a  grand  jury  secret  that  money  was 
paid  to  Chamberlain  Hyde.  There  was  not  a  scintilla  of 
evidence  of  any  such  thing.  At  the  trial,  to  make  some 
pretense  in  this  respect,  it  was  shown  that  four  months 
after  the  alleged  offense  was  committed,  namely,  the  re- 
quest that  the  loan  should  be  made  by  the  Northern  Bank, 
a  note  of  another  person  endorsed  by  Mr.  Hyde  was  dis- 
counted in  the  Carnegie  Trust  Company,  and  promptly 
paid  when  it  became  due.  No  one  can  think  of  such  things 

186 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

without  perceiving  the  degradation  which  the  administra- 
tion of  the  criminal  law  in  this  county  of  New  York  has 
come  to.  I  am  speaking  plainly  about  the  matter,  because 
I  hope  all  intelligent  people  like  you  will  see  to  it  that  no 
such  infamous  thing  happens  again.  The  courts  ought  to 
be  sanctuaries  of  refuge  against  clamor,  instead  of  places 
where  clamor  is  used  to  inflame  and  corrupt  the  adminis- 
tration of  justice. 

Thcron  C.  Stearns,  Esq., 

Jersey  City,  N.  J. 


Literature  of   Weights  and  Measures 

July  2,  1913. 

Dear  Mr.  Strong:  I  appreciate  your  letter  of  June 
25th  with  regard  to  the  work  of  the  Bureau  of  Weights 
and  Measures.  Some  years  ago  I  read  the  report  of  John 
Quincy  Adams  to  the  United  States  Senate  about  weights 
and  measures.  It  is  a  classic.  It  covers  the  whole  litera- 
ture of  the  subject,  and  I  know  of  no  more  enticing  litera- 
ture. It  runs  through  all  history,  ancient  and  modern. 
Much  of  it  is  in  the  Old  Testament.  For  instance,  "  A 
false  balance  is  an  abomination  to  the  Lord;  but  a  just 
weight  is  his  delight,"  as  we  read  in  Proverbs.  One  of  the 
first  duties  of  government  from  the  beginning  of  organized 
society  has  been  to  provide  for  a  uniform  standard  of 
weights  and  measures,  and  to  enforce  the  use  of  the  same. 
When  I  came  in  as  Mayor  I  found  the  city  filled  with  false 
weights  and  measures.  The  law  cannot  be  said  to  have 
been  enforced  at  all.  I  immediately  took  the  matter  up, 
and  the  young  man  at  the  head  of  that  bureau  has  now 
brought  the  work  almost  to  completion,  as  you  might 
yourself  conclude  since  he  has  got  so  far  along  as  even  to 
establish  a  standard  carat  for  the  weight  of  precious  stones. 

It  is  very  gratifying  to  him  and  to  me  to  have  notice 
taken  of  his  work  by  intelligent  men,  such  as  you  have  in 
the  City  Club.  The  great  millions  of  the  city  know  of  the 

187 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

work,  because  they  know  that  they  have  been  protected 
from  dishonest  weights  and  measures. 

C.  H.  Strong,  Esq.,  President, 

The  City  Club, 

Manhattan. 


Animals 

July  3,  1913. 

Dear  Professor  Osborn:  Yes,  I  shall  be  glad  to  ap- 
point one  of  your  Trustees  to  the  Board  of  Education.  I 
should  have  done  it  before  if  I  had  been  reminded  of  it.  I 
had  not  heard  any  proposition  to  drop  the  nature  study 
from  the  curriculum  of  the  public  schools.  Of  course  that 
matter  is  wholly  with  the  school  authorities,  but  I  shall 
speak  of  it  to  some  of  them  the  first  opportunity  I  get. 

I  am  much  struck  with  one  remark  you  make,  that 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  our  children  never  see  a  living 
wild  animal  or  bird.  But  I  have  several  times  gone  much 
further  than  that.  There  are  a  very  large  number  of  peo- 
ple in  this  great  city,  larger  than  most  people  have  any 
idea  of,  who  have  never  seen  a  calf  or  a  pig.  We  provide 
wild  animals  for  them  to  look  at,  but  not  domestic  animals. 
If  I  had  my  way  we  would  have  domestic  animals  for  the 
people  here  to  see.  I  am  certain  that  a  sow  with  a  litter 
of  pigs  would  be  more  intensely  interesting  to  most  people 
than  any  wild  animal.  And  cow  and  calf,  mare  and  colt, 
and  so  on,  would  also  be  most  interesting.  Is  there  any 
natural  sight  so  interesting  as  a  litter  of  pigs  nursing? 

Prof.  Henry  Fairfield  Osborn, 

New  York  City. 

A  Safe  and  Sane  Fourth 

July  8,  1913. 

Dear  Mrs.  Rice:  I  thank  you  for  your  letter,  and 
especially  for  your  article  on  "  The  Child  and  the  Fourth." 

188 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

It  shows  the  many  ways  in  which  our  boys  and  girls  can 
celebrate  Independence  Day  with  pleasure  and  profit.  On 
last  Friday  (Independence  Day)  I  went  from  my  house 
through  the  Borough  of  Brooklyn  and  through  the  Bor- 
ough of  Queens  to  the  City  line.  What  I  saw  gave  me 
the  greatest  of  pleasure.  I  did  not  hear  the  sound  of  an 
explosive  anywhere.  But  every  few  blocks  my  motor  car 
was  stopped  at  the  crossing  and  I  got  out  and  saw  a  local 
procession  go  by.  These  processions  were  made  up  mostly 
of  school  children,  but  there  were  in  them  also  a  good 
many  grown-up  people.  What  delighted  me  was  that 
they  had  their  own  local  bands  of  music.  The  number  of 
these  bands  seems  to  be  growing  all  over  the  city.  Boys 
come  together,  each  one  furnishing  a  musical  instrument, 
and  practise  music,  and  make  up  regular  musical  bands. 
This  always  has  been  so  all  through  the  country  districts, 
not  only  in  the  villages  but  in  the  farm  districts,  and  even 
up  into  the  edge  of  the  Adirondacks.  It  has  always 
seemed  to  me  that  we  should  encourage  the  forming  of 
such  bands  here.  Some  people  want  the  city  to  hire  bands 
and  put  them  everywhere  to  play  music.  I  think  it  is 
much  better  to  encourage  the  forming  of  these  volunteer 
bands.  They  are  an  education  to  those  who  belong  to 
them  and  a  delight  to  the  whole  neighborhood.  It  is  not 
every  one  who  can  understand  classical  music.  Very  few 
understand  it.  But  of  course  the  city  should  furnish  pub- 
lic music  also  in  the  parks  and  at  the  principal  centers. 
Yes,  it  makes  every  one  rejoice  that  the  crippling,  blind- 
ing and  killing  of  children  and  grown  people  by  explosives 
on  Independence  Day  is  a  thing  of  the  past. 

Mrs.  Isaac  L.  Rice, 

Manhattan. 

Degradation  of  Newspaper  Writers 

July  11,  1913. 

Dear :     Your  letter  of  July  10th  is 

at  hand.    I  have  often  thought  over  the  matter  which  you 

189 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

mention.  The  present  position  of  newspaper  writers,  and 
especially  of  those  who  write  the  news,  is  degrading  to  the 
last  degree.  They  are  mere  slaves.  Worse  than  that, 
they  are  dishonorable  slaves.  The  corrupt  newspaper 
proprietor  browbeats  them,  and  kicks  them  about  as  he 
sees  fit.  He  does  not  leave  them  free  to  write  the  honest 
truth,  but  dictates  to  them  that  they  must  lie,  garble, 
forge,  steal,  or  do  anything  to  write  down  the  official  or 
person  who  is  the  subject  of  the  animosity  or  cupidity  of 
such  proprietors.  And  if  they  refuse  to  do  it  they  are 
kicked  out.  How  long  will  the  newspaper  writers  con- 
tinue to  allow  themselves  to  be  degraded  in  that  way? 
I  am  of  course  acquainted  with  the  young  men  who  serve 
as  reporters  here  at  the  City  Hall.  They  are,  as  a  rule, 
fine  young  fellows.  But  some  of  them  have  to  come 
around  to  my  office  shamefacedly  to  get  the  news  only  to 
forge  and  pervert  it  in  the  way  which  I  have  said.  I  pity 
them.  They  do  not  want  to  do  it.  They  have  to  do  it  or 
get  out.  It  seems  to  me  the  newspaper  writers  ought  to 
protect  themselves  at  least  to  the  extent  that  typesetters, 
pressmen,  and  other  mechanics  protect  themselves.  At  all 
events  they  ought  to  band  together  and  protect  themselves 
against  the  degradation  of  being  made  to  write  falsehood 
and  abuse. 

On  Christmas 

Christmas  is  the  happiest  day  in  the  year.  It  is  the 
birthday  of  Jesus,  the  greatest  figure  that  ever  came  upon 
this  earth.  The  farther  we  recede  from  him  the  more 
colossal  he  grows.  He  was  the  greatest  teacher  that  ever 
came  on  this  earth,  and  yet  he  never  wrote  a  line.  What 
he  taught  was  propagated  by  word  of  mouth  until  the 
Gospels  were  written  in  a  much  later  time.  No  one  can 
read  the  account  of  the  birth  of  Jesus  in  Luke's  Gospel 
without  being  thrilled.  The  picture  of  the  child  in  the 
manger  with  the  cattle  looking  on  never  leaves  the  mind 
from  childhood  up. 

190 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

We  children  in  the  country  saw  the  cow  and  the  ox 
and  the  manger,  and  Jesus  and  all.  Maybe  city  children 
do  not  see  it  so  vividly.  We  lived  with  the  cattle,  and 
loved  them.  That  Jesus  was  born  among  them  made  us 
feel  that  he  was  really  one  of  us.  Yes,  Christmas  seems 
the  same  to  me  now  as  when  I  was  a  child.  We  used  to 
hang  up  our  stockings.  We  could  scarcely  go  to  sleep. 
But  we  did  manage  to  get  to  sleep  the  same  as  chil- 
dren do  now.  And  like  them  we  were  up  before  day- 
light to  see  what  Santa  Claus  had  brought.  What  he 
brought  us  was  very  little  in  value,  but  very  great  in  our 
imaginations.  We  believed  in  his  sleigh,  in  his  reindeers, 
in  his  coming  down  the  chimney,  and  the  whole  business. 
We  did  not  entertain  the  least  doubt  of  it.  I  have  great 
difficulty  to  doubt  it  now,  but  I  have  some  difficulty  in 
making  my  children  believe  it  after  a  few  years.  They 
have  Santa  Claus  now  coming  in  an  automobile,  and  with 
false  keys  to  open  the  front  doors,  and  a  whole  lot  of 
things  that  I  do  not  like  at  all.  But  the  world  is  ad- 
vancing. I  do  not  remember  ever  having  seen  the  little 
chap,  but  I  am  certain  that  he  used  to  come  around  in  the 
country  when  I  was  a  boy.  I  think  I  have  seen  his  foot- 
steps in  the  snow,  and  also  the  tracks  of  his  reindeers  and 
sleigh.  I  am  glad  the  Brooklyn  Times  is  issuing  a  Christ- 
mas supplement.  I  wish  I  had  time  to  add  to  its  litera- 
ture. I  wish  every  one  who  reads  the  supplement  would 
then  read  the  account  of  the  birth  of  Jesus  in  the  Gospels. 
And  then  let  them  read  say  the  23rd  Psalm,  and  the 
Twelfth  Chapter  of  Ecclesiastes.  They  will  feel  happy. 

Veto  of  a  Separate  Vice  Department 

I  feel  constrained  not  to  accept  this  bill  on  behalf  of 
the  city.  I  shall  state  the  reasons  in  numerical  order. 

1.  The  design  of  the  committee  of  eminent  citizens 
who  examined  into  the  matter  was  to  take  away  from  the 
Police  Department  the  administration  of  the  liquor  tax 
law,  the  laws  against  gambling,  and  the  laws  concerning 

191 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

female  prostitution,  and  place  the  same  in  a  separate  de- 
partment.    It  has  been  the  case  here,  and  in  the  cities 
through  this  country,  that  the  keepers  of  liquor  places,  of 
gambling  places  and  houses  of  prostitution,  pay  politi- 
cians, and  to  some  extent  police  officials,  to  secure  a  lenient 
administration  of  the  law  in  their  case.    The  exposure  of 
this  condition  from  time  to  time  has  had  a  bad  effect  on 
the  police  force  here  as  a  whole,  although  its  membership 
is  now  of  a  very  high  order  and  there  is  no  better  police 
force  in  the  world.    That  even  a  few  members  of  the  police 
force  extort  graft,  or  are  tempted  to  take  it,  creates  a  dis- 
trust of  the  whole  force  by  those  who  are  affected  by 
clamor  instead  of  thinking  for  themselves.    It  was  there- 
fore thought  best  by  the  said  committee  to  take  the  ad- 
ministration of  the  law  respecting  these  things  away  from 
the  police  force,  and  leave  it,  untempted  and  undisturbed, 
to  perform  that  which  has  always  been  its  chief  duty, 
namely,  to  preserve  outward  order  and  decency,  and  pre- 
vent, detect  and  arrest  for  the  ordinary  crimes.    But  this 
bill  does  not  carry  out  this  plan.    It  leaves  the  enforce- 
ment of  the  liquor  tax  law  with  the  police  force,  instead 
of  bringing  it  into  the  proposed  new  department,  although 
the  major  part  of  the  corruption  money  paid  to  police 
officials  and  politicians  in  the  past  has  come  from  that 
source.    It  was  stated  on  the  hearing  before  me  that  the 
enforcement  of  this  law  was  left  with  the  police  for  the 
reason  that  I  have  established  and  carried  out  a  plan  which 
has  done  away  with  such  corruption  under  it.    While  that 
is  true,  such  corruption  may  very  easily  be  revived  here- 
after.   We  have  also  during  the  last  few  years  done  away 
with  most  of  the  corruption  from  the  other  two  sources. 
That  might  be  alleged  as  a  reason  also  for  not  turning 
the  administration  of  the  laws  in  respect  of  them  over  to 
a  separate  department.    If  this  thing  is  to  be  done  at  all 
it  should  be  completely  done.    That  is  what  the  report  of 
the  committee  of  citizens  called  for.     This  bill  is  not  in 
accordance  with  what  the  committee  asked  of  the  Legis- 
lature. 

192 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

2.  This  bill  provides  for  a  Department  of  Public  Wel- 
fare, to  consist  of  a  board  of  seven  commissioners,  remov- 
able by  the  Mayor  only  for  cause  after  a. trial.     This  is 
contrary  to  the  present  scheme  or  constitution  of  govern- 
ment of  this  city.     The  board  of  seven  members  would 
probably  result  in  discord  and  inefficiency.    Our  present 
system  of  single  heads  of  departments  to  be  appointed 
and  removed  by  the  Mayor  at  pleasure,  was  brought  in 
for  grave  cause.    I  know  of  no  reason  to  abandon  it.    It 
has  worked  well  and  has  never  been  abused.     The  idea 
seems  to  be  to  divide  the  responsibility  for  the  enforce- 
ment of  these  laws.    That  is  a  weakness  to  be  deprecated. 
It  is  much  better  to  center  the  responsibility,  and  experi- 
ence has  proved  that  the  place  to  center  it  is  in  the  Mayor. 
The  people  of  this  great  city  ought  to  be  able  to  elect  a 
Mayor  in  whom  they  would  have  full  confidence  and  who 
would  neither  shrink  from  nor  shirk  any  responsibility. 
I  think  the  Mayor  of  this  city  can  always  rest  assured 
that  his  fellow  citizens  will  treat  him  with  justice,  however 
malevolent  the  attacks  of  petty  politicians  or  corrupt 
people   or   however   loud,    senseless   or   corrupt   clamor 
against  him  may  be. 

3.  There  are  two  very  dangerous  sections  in  our  city 
charter.     The  possibilities  of  oppression,  extortion  and 
blackmail  under  them  by  those  who  enforce  the  laws  are 
without  limit.     The  sections  I  refer  to  are  315  and  318. 
The  former  makes  it  the  duty  of  the  police,  and  empowers 
them,  at  all  times  of  the  day  and  night,  to  visit  certain 
places  mentioned,  including  "  all  houses  of  ill  fame  or 
prostitution,  and  houses  where  common  prostitutes  re- 
sort," and  "  all  gambling  houses,"  and  "  restrain  all  un- 
lawful   and    disorderly    conduct    or    practices    therein." 
Under  this  section  the  police  had  long  claimed  the  right 
of  visitation  to  these  places,  and  to  enter  them  by  force 
without  warrant.     Indeed,  literally  read,  the  section  em- 
powers the  police  to  preserve  order  in  such  places.    That 
would  practically  amount  to  licensing  them  and  putting 
them  in  charge  of  the  police  to  keep  order  in  them.    The 
other  section,  namely,  318,  empowers  the  police  to  enter 

193 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

any  house  in  the  city  under  a  mere  "  report "  to  them  of 
two  householders  that  they  believe  such  house  to  be  a 
house  of  ill  fame  or  a  gambling  house.  No  oath  is  re- 
quired. This  is  contrary  to  the  provision  which  is  found 
in  the  bill  of  rights  or  constitution  of  every  state  in  this 
union,  and  of  the  United  States,  that  entrance  into  houses 
and  searches  and  seizures  therein  cannot  be  made  except 
on  a  warrant  issued  by  a  magistrate  on  the  oath  of  wit- 
nesses before  him  showing  probable  cause.  This  section 
of  the  charter  wholly  disregards  this  great  constitutional 
safeguard,  which  is  common  to  every  civilized  government 
in  the  world.  For  that  reason  it  is  void.  No  better  device 
for  the  practice  of  official  extortion  and  blackmail  could 
be  devised  than  that  afforded  by  these  two  sections.  They 
have  been  dead  letters  since  I  have  been  Mayor.  I  have 
forbidden  any  house  to  be  entered  or  any  search  or  arrest 
to  be  made  under  them.  It  is  always  easy  to  get  a  war- 
rant from  a  magistrate  to  enter  a  house  when  necessary. 
If  no  evidence  can  be  found  to  lay  before  a  magistrate  on 
oath,  that  in  itself  shows  that  the  house  should  not  be 
entered.  In  years  gone  by  the  police  have  made  use  of 
these  two  sections  of  the  charter  to  assert  the  right  of 
forcible  entry  and  visitation  and  inspection  of  houses  at 
will.  In  that  way  they  were  able  to  collect  any  amount 
of  money  they  saw  fit,  and  in  fact  high  officials  of  the 
police  department  one  after  another,  and  year  after  year, 
retired  millionaires.  This  is  all  a  matter  of  history.  In 
1905  my  predecessor  appointed  a  commission  to  consider 
police  matters.  These  two  dangerous  sections  of  the 
charter  were  pointed  out  to  that  commission,  together 
with  the  extortion  which  had  long  been  practised  under 
them.  The  result  was  that  the  said  commission  recom- 
mended their  repeal  to  the  Legislature.  But  they  were 
not  repealed.  And  now,  when  I  had  supposed  it  was  well 
known  that  these  two  sections  of  the  charter  had  been 
made  dead  letters,  and  were  no  longer  in  use,  the  Legis- 
lature solemnly  re-enacts  them  both  in  the  bill  now  before 
me.  Under  no  circumstances  could  I  be  induced  to  sign 

194 


MAYOR  GAYNOITS  LETTERS  AND  SPEECHES 

this  bill  with  these  two  sections  in  it.  We  have  far  more 
to  fear  in  this  country  from  the  gradual  encroachment  of 
arbitrary  power  than  from  all  the  vices  of  liquor  drinking, 
prostitution  and  gambling  combined,  if  not  from  all  the 
vices  combined.  It  must  never  be  forgotten  that  the  exer- 
cise of  arbitrary  power  brings  in  its  wake  sooner  or  later 
all  of  the  vices,  and  especially  the  detestable  vices  of  offi- 
cial oppression,  extortion  and  blackmail. 

4.  And  finally,  there  is  no  exigency  calling  for  this 
bill.  As  a  rule  all  unwise  legislation  is  passed  in  time  of 
senseless  clamor.  Never  in  thirty  years  has  there  been  so 
little  corruption  in  the  police  force  as  now.  And  yet  some, 
who  listen  only  to  public  clamor,  instead  of  thinking  for 
themselves,  would  have  it  that  corruption  is  so  rife  in  the 
police  force  that  .we  need  to  humiliate  that  force  by  taking 
away  from  them  certain  of  their  powers.  Of  the  10,000  men 
on  our  police  force  there  are  not  50,  probably  not  25  cor- 
rupt ones.  During  the  last  year  disclosures  of  the  taking  of 
graft  by  a  few  members  of  the  police  force  during  the  last 
several  years  were  made.  They  were  made  in  every  case 
by  some  one  whose  corrupt  house,  whether  gambling  house 
or  worse,  had  been  seized  and  put  out  of  business  by  order 
of  the  police  commissioner.  Some  lose  sight  of  the  fact 
that  the  disclosures  were  in  this  way  forced  by  a  strict  ad- 
ministration of  the  law  by  the  police  commissioner.  Men 
and  women  who  had  kept  these  infamous  houses  for  a 
generation,  and  during  that  time  had  tempted  and  cor- 
rupted the  police,  were  arrested  by  the  police  and  their 
houses  were  closed  as  public  nuisances.  The  law  makes 
every  gambling  house  or  house  of  ill  fame  a  public 
nuisance,  and  the  police,  or  the  citizens  generally,  have  a 
right  to  abate  it.  I  caused  that  law  to  be  revived,  and  it 
is  under  it  that  the  police  take  possession  of  such  houses. 
From  time  to  time  as  they  have  arrested  the  keepers  of 
such  houses,  and  taken  possession  of  the  houses  as  public 
nuisances,  such  keepers  have  threatened  to  disclose  that 
they  had  been  paying  protection  money  to  the  police  or 
politicians,  and  in  four  or  five  instances  such  disclosures 

195 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

were  actually  made.  In  place  of  the  police  force  being 
blamed,  it  should  be  commended  for  having  caused  such 
disclosures  by  the  enforcement  of  the  law.  One  would 
think  from  the  clamor  that  has  been  raised  against  the 
police  commissioner  that  the  police  have  done  nothing  in 
this  matter,  but  that  it  was  all  done  by  some  other  per- 
sons. Rosenthal  opened,  one  '  after  another,  twelve 
gambling  houses  within  a  year.  Each  one  in  turn  was 
seized  by  the  police.  After  the  twelfth  one  had  been 
seized,  about  one  year  ago,  and  the  police  were  in  pos- 
session of  it,  he  concluded  that  he  could  no  longer  conduct 
his  business  in  the  city  of  New  York,  and  then  made  dis- 
closures that  he  had  corrupted  a  police  lieutenant,  Becker 
by  name.  The  same  thing  happened  with  Sipp,  whose 
dirty  houses  were  seized.  He  made  disclosures  of  graft. 
The  same  thing  happened  with  the  women  Goode  and 
Hertz.  The  same  thing  happened  with  a  saloon  keeper, 
and  these  are  all  the  sources  of  graft  disclosures  which  we 
have  had.  And  the  disclosures  have  been  principally  of 
things  that  happened  many  years  ago.  In  place  of  there 
being  any  dereliction  on  the  part  of  the  police  during  the 
last  three  years,  it  was  the  full  performance  of  duty  by 
them  which  brought  about  these  disclosures.  In  fact,  the 
two  commissioners  whom  I  appointed  worked  from  the 
beginning  to  spot  the  dishonest  officers  on  the  force  and 
get  rid  of  them.  In  that  way  we  actually  got  rid  of  twelve 
inspectors  and  captains,  and  the  recent  conviction  of  four 
captains  raises  the  number  to  sixteen.  The  people  of  this 
city  are  beginning  to  perceive  the  truth  of  this  matter.  In 
place  of  their  police  force  having  failed,  its  efficiency  was 
never  at  as  high  a  point  as  it  is  today,  or  as  it  has  been 
during  the  last  three  years.  Nor  do  the  police  take  the 
law  into  their  own  hands.  They  proceed  against  all  evil 
houses  as  public  nuisances.  The  character  of  a  house  is 
proved  by  those  who  frequent  it.  A  house  to  which 
gamblers  or  prostitutes  resort  is  a  public  nuisance.  The 
police  observe  these  houses,  and  then  get  warrants  against 
them  as  public  nuisances,  and  proceed  against  the  pro- 

196 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

prietors,  and  take  possession  of  the  houses,  and  abate  the 
nuisances.  This  has  now  been  going  on  for  three  years, 
during  which  scores  of  such  houses  have  been  permanently 
put  out  of  business.  It  was  bound  to  bring  out  disclosures 
of  corruption.  I  have  been  surprised  that  it  has  not 
brought  out  more.  When  corrupt  disclosures  are  thus 
brought  out,  the  accused  officers  are  indicted  and  pros- 
ecuted. 


107 


A  FEW  SPEECHES  OF 
MAYOR    GAY NOR 

We  give  here  a  few  of  the  many 
speeches  of  Mayor  Gaynor.  They 
have  been  picked  out  at  random  from 
the  typewritten  copies  of  his  speeches. 
All  of  his  many  speeches,  excepting 
two,  since  he  has  been  Mayor  have  been 
delivered  without  notes,  extemporane- 
ously, and  most  of  them  almost  on  the 
spur  of  the  moment,  and  taken  by  sten- 
ographers. Sometimes  his  speeches  are 
decidedly  free  and  colloquial,  and  some- 
times are  quite  formal  and  precise,  to 
suit  the  occasion.  Good  humor  always, 
and  sometimes  wit,  runs  through  them. 
He  has  made  more  speeches  than  any 
former  Mayor  of  New  York,  and  it 
may  be  more  than  all  the  former 
Mayors  of  New  York  put  together. 
Many  of  his  speeches  have  been  de- 
livered at  banquets.  All  of  his  speeches 
would  fill  several  volumes.  They  cover 
a  great  variety  of  topics,  and  show 
that  he  has  studied  and  thought  over 
many  things. 


Mayor  Gaynor's  Letters  and  Speeches 


PART  II— SPEECHES 


Personal  Reminiscences 

(Remarks  at  the  Sons  of  Oneida  Dinner,  Hotel  Astor,  January 

28,  1913.) 

Gentlemen  of  the  Sons  of  Oneida:  I  am  very  happy 
indeed  to  greet  you  all.  It  is  very  seldom  I  get  a  chance 
to  be  toastmaster,  but  I  am  President  of  your  society. 
I  generally  have  the  other  end  of  it.  So  I  will  try  to  be 
as  good  a  toastmaster  as  I  know  how.  From  what  I  have 
seen  of  toastmasters  since  I  have  been  Mayor  I  do  not 
remember  a  single  one  to  pattern  after.  As  a  rule  you 
cannot  get  a  word  in  edgewise  with  them.  They  say 
everything.  No  matter  what  your  subject  is,  and  no 
matter  how  well  you  have  prepared  it,  they  manage 
in  some  way  to  say  it  before  you  get  a  chance  to 
say  it.  I  am  not  going  to  do  that  to-night.  I  am 
going  to  stick  to  my  own  business  if  I  can.  I  have 
a  hard  time  to  do  that  as  Mayor,  and  some  think  I 
do  not  do  it.  And  a  few  think  I  do.  Of  course  I  think 
the  few  are  right.  There  are  not  so  many  of  us  sons  of 
Oneida  County,  but  still  we  are  of  good  quality.  What 
we  lack  in  numbers  we  make  up  in  quality.  I  do  not  know 
when  I  have  seen  so  many  men  together  for  whom  I  have 
so  great  an  affection.  There  are  men  here  who  remind  me 
of  my  boyhood  days. 

Every  one  of  you  has  some  particular  idea  with  regard 
to  old  Oneida  County,  and  what  a  grand  old  place  it  was. 
I  remember  every  foot  of  it.  Even  the  streams  and  creeks 

201 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

in  which  I  fished,  in  the  spring.  I  could  enumerate  them 
all.  The  Unadilla.  Did  you  ever  hear  a  prettier  name 
than  the  Unadilla?  And  the  Saquoit,  and  the  Oriskany; 
and  the  raging  Mohawk,  of  course  I  cannot  leave  that  out. 
They  are  making  the  barge  canal  of  it  now,  but  it  is  there 
yet.  And  all  the  places  that  I  can  enumerate  and  the 
familiar  names,  even  Verona  Springs.  There  is  some  one 
here  from  Verona  Springs.  Who  is  it?  (A  voice — "  Mr. 
Cady." )  That  is  his  name.  My  father  went  out  to  Verona 
Springs  once  and  brought  home  a  barrel  of  sulphur  water. 
It  was  to  cure  us  of  all  the  diseases  that  we  had,  and  to 
prevent  us  from  ever  having  any  other.  (A  voice — "  The 
judge  left  the  water  out  in  the  field  and  got  well.")  You 
are  quite  right,  Cady,  my  father  put  it  out  in  the  barn 
near  the  pig  pen.  (A  voice — "  What  effect  did  it  have  on 
the  pigs?")  Well,  it  smelled  so  bad  that  even  the  pigs 
could  not  stand  it.  So  he  took  the  barrel  of  sulphur  water 
and  he  put  it  out  in  the  middle  of  the  Dexter  lot,  a  ten- 
acre  lot  on  the  farm,  as  far  away  from  the  house  as  we 
could  get,  and  we  could  not  stand  it  even  that  far  away, 
Cady,  and  I  think  we  finally  went  and  knocked  the  end 
of  the  barrel  in  and  got  rid  of  it.  They  were  trying  to 
make  a  watering  place  of  Verona,  and  that  was  the  result. 
Forgive  me,  Cady,  I  may  be  doing  you  and  Verona  great 
harm.  (Mr.  Cady — "  I  forgive  you.")  All  right.  Yes,  all 
sorts  of  memories.  I  see  Marsh  over  there.  Many  a  time 
I  went  through  Whitesboro  and  looked  at  the  sign  of  the 
clockmaker  Marsh.  I  guess  he  was  Marsh's  grandfather 
by  the  looks  of  Marsh  over  there  now.  I  have  known  him 
ever  since  he  has  been  down  here.  He  may  be  older  than 
he  looks,  but  at  all  events  his  father,  or  grandfather,  kept 
the  clock  store  there.  But  we  cannot  go  into  all  these 
things.  All  of  you  have  memories,  local  ones,  as  dear  as 
mine.  Of  course  my  closest  memory  is  to  the  old  farm 
house.  I  was  calling  off  names  to  you  a  moment  ago,  but 
the  name  of  the  place  where  I  saw  daylight  and  spent  my 
boyhood  on  the  farm  was  "  Skeeterboro,"  dearest  of  all. 
The  origin  of  the  name  is  too  obvious  to  need  me  to  pause 

202 


MAYOR    GAYNQR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

to  explain  it  to  you.  Skeeterboro  forever  with  me.  The 
next  closest  memory  to  me  of  course  is  the  schoolhouse  up 
at  Skeeterboro.  Now,  do  not  imagine  that  Skeeterboro 
was  a  village  or  that  the  houses  were  close  together.  We 
lived  close  enough  together  for  peace  sake  so  far  as  I  re- 
member, but  I  do  not  think  any  of  us  were  within  half  a 
mile  of  each  other.  There  were  the  Christies,  and  the 
Marrs,  and  the  Sutliffes  and  the  Paynes,  and  the  Park- 
hursts,  and  so  on.  Probably  it  is  due  to  the  Parkhurst 
family,  if  there  be  any  of  them  here,  that  I  say  they  were 
in  no  way  related  to  Rabbi  Parkhurst  of  New  York.  He 
is  a  friend  of  mine.  But  those  were  all  capital  people. 
And  the  schoolhouse,  you  all  have  a  memory  of  some  little 
schoolhouse  up  there,  except  those  of  you  who  were  born 
in  that  great  metropolis  called  Utica.  My  schoolhouse 
on  the  outside  today  is  just  the  same  as  it  was  when  I  went 
there.  It  has  never  been  painted  to  this  day.  The  one 
that  my  mother  went  to  just  over  the  river  in  the  town  of 
Marcy  where  she  was  born  and  reared  was  painted  red, 
and  every  time  I  saw  it  I  was  struck  with  awe.  But  the 
one  I  went  to  has  not  had  a  touch  of  paint  to  this  day. 
They  have,  however,  put  the  city  desks  in.  In  those  days 
the  desks  slanted  down  from  the  four  walls  inward,  and 
then  the  benches  were  along  in  front  of  the  desks,  and  we 
studied  our  lessons  sitting  on  the  benches  with  our  face 
to  the  wall,  and  then  when  we  were  going  to  recite  we 
threw  our  heels  over  the  bench  and  faced  about  to  the 
teacher,  and  at  the  same  time  faced  the  big  stove  in  the 
center  of  the  room  that  burned  the  cordwood.  And  many 
a  day  in  the  winter  have  I  tramped  to  that  schoolhouse. 
And  sometimes  to  get  home  they  had  to  turn  out  and 
dig  out  the  snow.  And  how  often  we  had  our  ears  frozen 
on  the  way  to  school  or  while  out  playing,  or  our  faces 
frozen  even,  and  when  our  ears  thawed  out  sometimes  they 
hung  over  so  that  they  came  down  flat  almost.  I  have 
one  thick  ear.  I  suppose  you  can  see  it.  But  I  got  that 
in  a  Long  Island  snowstorm  three  years  ago.  I  got  it 
bad  that  night.  It  reminded  me  of  Skeeterboro  and  going 

203 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

to  school.  And  then  right  within  three-quarters  of  a  mile 
of  our  farm,  and  the  same  distance  from  the  little  school- 
house  is  the  site  of  the  battle  of  Oriskany.  There  is  a  fine 
monument  there  now  showing  where  that  decisive  battle 
was  fought.  The  result  of  putting  that  monument  up  is 
that  every  person  living  in  that  whole  country  up  there 
round  about  knows  all  about  the  battle  of  Oriskany.  But 
I  may  as  well  tell  you  and  get  rid  of  it,  that  never  in  the 
schoolhouse  or  out  of  the  schoolhouse  did  I  ever  in  my 
boyhood  hear  of  the  battle  of  Oriskany.  After  I  came 
down  here  the  Oneida  County  Historical  Society  put  up 
this  grand  monument,  and  afterwards  when  I  went  up 
there  I  was  surprised  to  learn  that  it  was  so  close  to  the 
house  in  which  I  was  born  and  the  schoolhouse  to  which  I 
went  to  school.  And  yet  it  was  one  of  the  decisive  oc- 
casions of  the  Revolutionary  War.  No  one  can  stand  at 
the  base  of  that  monument  now  without  realizing  the  mag- 
nitude of  the  Revolutionary  War.  One  column  was  com- 
ing down  from  Canada,  a  British  column  I  mean,  through 
the  Mohawk  Valley,  and  another  was  coming  way  around 
by  the  Lakes  from  Canada,  and  they  were  going  to  meet 
on  the  Hudson  at  Albany  and  take  possession  of  the  Hud- 
son River  and  thereby  cut  the  New  England  colonies  off 
from  the  other  colonies,  a  thing  which  would  have  been 
fatal  to  the  Revolutionary  cause.  Herkimer  and  his 
neighbors  checked  the  column  which  was  coming  down 
through  the  Mohawk  Valley,  and  Burgoyne  (that  strange 
character  who  wrote  the  opera,  "  The  Barber  of  Seville," 
isn't  it? — a  strange  character) — met  his  fate  at  Saratoga, 
surrendered  at  Saratoga,  and  that  was  the  end  of  that 
gigantic  scheme  of  the  British.  Think  of  the  distances 
they  traveled  in  those  days.  But  I  will  not  go  into  that 
subject.  I  mention  the  matter  more  to  show  the  value  of 
monuments  as  teachers  of  history.  New  England  got 
ahead  of  the  whole  country  by  early  erecting  monuments. 
The  monument  at  Bennington,  the  monument  at  Bunker 
Hill,  and  others.  The  story  of  the  New  England  battle- 
fields was  told  by  monuments  from  the  start.  But  more 
important  battles  occurred  elsewhere,  whose  story  re- 

204 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

mained  untold  chiefly  because  no  monuments  were  erected 
to  them.  Monuments  have  always  been  the  greatest 
teachers  of  history.  When  you  see  a  monument  you  ask 
what  it  means  and  you  learn  all  about  it.  So  that  from 
the  beginning  of  the  world  the  monuments  have  been  the 
great  teachers,  and  now  the  monument  at  Oriskany,  the 
monument  at  Saratoga,  the  little  monument  to  Baron 
Steuben,  have  taught  that  whole  part  of  the  state  the  great 
event  of  the  war  which  occurred  in  those  localities.  Those 
were  great  days.  I  would  like  to  just  say  a  few  more 
things  but  I  won't.  I  was  up  there  a  few  years  ago,  five 
years  ago,  I  think,  the  last,  and  I  went  through  the  neigh- 
borhood where  I  was  born.  Every  family  was  gone  that 
was  there  when  I  was  there  except  one.  Plalf  of  the  boys 
in  the  school  that  I  went  to  were  Welsh.  My  chum  in  the 
school  was  Bill  Griffiths.  He  is  alive  up  there  yet,  and  he 
is  the  only  one  that  I  know  of.  He  runs  a  threshing  ma- 
chine. There  is  one  other  Griffith  that  I  have  a  notion  to 
name — she  is  dead  and  gone — and  that  was  Jane  Griffith, 
his  sister.  It  didn't  happen,  but  it  might  have  happened. 
And  I  came  from  the  neighborhood  and  walked  down  and 
through  Cider  Street.  Some  of  you  know  where  Cider 
Street  is.  It  is  a  country  road  down  to  Oriskany.  My 
home  was  three  miles  west  of  Oriskany  and  about  five 
miles  from  Rome.  And  I  walked  down  to  the  little  vil- 
lage cemetery,  just  before  you  get  into  Oriskany,  about 
sunset,  and  I  went  over  the  stile,  and  went  through  the 
tombs,  the  modest  tombstones,  and  there  I  saw  all  these 
names.  Most  of  them  were  sleeping  there.  I  would  not 
like  to  say  that  I  knelt  down,  but  I  certainly  was  greatly 
affected.  All  of  you  have  experienced  the  same  thing. 
There  they  were  sleeping.  Those  that  were  not  sleeping 
had  moved  off  to  the  west  and  other  places.  And  I  will 
tell  you  before  I  introduce  the  speakers  what  happened 
at  the  last  visit  as  I  was  on  the  way  up  to  Skeeterboro. 
I  was  going  along  the  road  and  I  just  came  to  the  first  lot 
of  my  father's  old  farm  called  the  Dexter  lot,  and  I  met  a 
man  on  the  road.  I  could  not  be  mistaken.  I  went  to 

205 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

school  with  him;  but  he  does  not  live  in  Skeeterboro  now; 
he  lives  a  little  way  off,  near  by  towards  Hampton,  and  I 
knew  it  was  Tom  Phillips  as  soon  as  I  saw  him.  There 
may  be  some  here  that  remember  the  Phillips  family. 
And  I  bade  him  good  day,  and  he  bid  me  good  day,  and 
spit  more  or  less  tobacco  juice  on  the  road,  and  we  sat 
on  the  fence  and  talked,  and  he  told  me  finally  he  was  in 
much  trouble.  He  didn't  know  who  I  was — I  was  then 
a  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court;  and  he  said  he  was  in 
much  trouble  and  I  says,  what  is  it?  Well,  he  says,  not 
long  ago  I  went  down  to  Oriskany  one  Saturday  night 
and  I  got  rather  high.  We  never  said  drunk  up  there. 
We  always  said  we  got  high.  That  is  an  Oneida  County 
expression  and  it  is  used  elsewhere.  And  he  said  a  chap 
down  there,  I  got  into  a  fight  with  him,  and  he  gave  me  a 
good  licking.  Oh,  he  says,  he  beat  me  bad.  Well,  I 
says,  what  of  that?  Yes,  he  says,  but  he  came  up  here 
about  a  month  afterwards  and  I  met  him  on  the  road  and 
I  went  for  him  and  I  gave  him  a  good  licking.  So  I  says, 
what  of  that?  That  is  an  every  day  occurrence  up  here, 
or  used  to  be.  Well,  he  says,  he  wasn't  satisfied,  but  he 
went  up  to  Rome  to  the  District  Attorney  and  got  me 
indicted.  He  says,  I  have  thirteen  children  and,  I  think 
he  said,  ten  cows.  And  he  says  I  see  no  way  except  to 
sell  a  couple  of  cows  and  hire  a  lawyer  to  defend  me,  and 
that  goes  pretty  hard  with  me.  I  talked  it  over  with  him 
and  we  finally  parted.  He  did  not  know  who  I  was,  but 
when  I  got  home  to  Brooklyn  I  sat  down  and  wrote  a 
letter  to  the  District  Attorney  at  Rome  and  told  him 
poor  Tom's  case  and  the  trouble  he  was  in,  and  it  is  need- 
less to  say  that  Tom  did  not  have  to  sell  his  two  cows  to 
hire  a  lawyer.  He  was  fortunate  enough  to  meet  a  lawyer 
on  the  road.  I  wrote  the  District  Attorney  and  told  him 
about  some  of  the  ancient  customs  up  in  that  county.  I 
told  him  the  whole  story  as  Tom  gave  it  to  me,  but  I  wrote 
also  in  the  letter  that  when  I  was  a  boy  up  there  such 
things  as  that  never  happened;  that  if  a  fellow  got  licked 
he  never  went  up  to  Rome  to  indict  anybody  for  we  had 

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MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

an  ancient  custom  among  us  that  before  we  entered  into  a 
fight  we  always  said,  "  say  no  law  and  I  will  lick  you." 
Then  if  the  other  fellow  said  "  no  law  "  that  meant  that 
the  law  was  off,  and  however  the  battle  went  there  was  to 
be  no  law  suit  and  no  indictment.  I  said  to  him  in  my  let- 
ter that  I  did  not  know  whether  poor  Tom  observed  this 
ancient  custom  or  not,  but  however  it  may  be  I  hoped  he 
would  be  as  lenient  with  him  as  possible.  But  that  was 
the  custom  when  I  lived  up  there.  When  we  wanted  to 
battle  we  said  to  the  other  fellow,  "  say  no  law  and  I  will 
lick  you,"  and  if  he  was  brave  enough  he  said,  "  no  law," 
and  then  we  had  it  out,  and  settled  it  right  there,  and  there 
was  no  law  afterwards.  I  would  like  to  have  that  custom 
down  here.  If  we  had  it  there  are  two  or  three  fellows 
down  here  that  own  nasty  newspapers,  and  I  would  like 
to  have  it  out  with  them  on  that  basis.  I  don't  want  to 
boast  because  I  am  growing  old,  but  I  really  think  I 
could  do  them  up.  They  may  think  they  can  do  me  up 
with  their  dirty  pens,  but  I  think  I  could  do  them  up  the 
other  way.  I  think  I  have  sand  enough  left  in  me  for 
that,  and  it  would  not  require  much  either,  to  tell  the  truth. 
Now  there  is  old  Skeeterboro  for  you.  There  are  other 
things  I  could  talk  about  but  some  of  them  would  be  mel- 
ancholy, and  some  of  them  would  be  a  twice  told  tale.  I 
would  like  to  be  there  again.  I  would  like  to  go  out  and 
gather  the  beechnuts  in  the  fall  and  do  many  things  that 
we  used  to  do  in  those  days.  Now  you  see  I  am  forget- 
ting that  I  am  only  the  toastmaster.  I  might  as  well  say 
when  I  got  through  with  Skeeterboro  I  came  down  to 
Utica,  and  I  stayed  there  and  studied  and  kept  as  still  as 
I  could  for  about  a  year  and  a  half  or  two  years.  I 
thought  Utica  was  a  wonderful  place.  And  finally  I  got 
ready  to  leave  Utica  also.  So  I  went  down  to  the  trunk 
store  and  bought  me  a  good  big  trunk.  And  I  had  my 
name  painted  on  one  end  of  it.  I  never  expected  to  come 
back  to  Utica  either.  I  had  my  name  painted  on  the  end 
of  it,  and  big  letters  under  it,  "  Utica,  N.  Y."  I  thought 
that  would  give  me  recognition  wherever  I  went.  But  I 

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MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

only  got  a  very  little  ways  off  from  Utica  before  nobody 
knew  who  I  was,  and  I  didn't  get  much  further  away  be- 
fore nobody  knew  or  cared  anything  about  Utica.  So  I 
shook  the  dust  of  Utica  off  my  feet.  But  we  have  with 
us  here  to-night  one  who  is  a  great  figure  in  Utica.  He 
was  there  when  I  was  there.  We  all  looked  up  to  him. 
If  there  was  anything  requiring  public  spirit  in  the  place 
we  turned  to  him  as  the  Mussulman  turns  towards  Mecca 
when  he  wants  to  say  his  prayers,  or  thinks  he  does,  which 
is  the  same  thing.  And  that  was  my  old  friend  T.  R. 
Proctor,  of  Utica.  We  will  have  a  few  words  from  Mr. 
Proctor. 

Abuse  of  Officials 

(Speech  at  the  Dinner  of  the  Citizens'  Association,  Bay  Ridge, 

April  17,  1913.) 

Mr.  Chairman  and  Fellow  Citizens:  I  thank  the 
chairman  for  his  kind  introduction.  He  said  that  he  hesi- 
tated about  saying  much  that  was  good  of  me,  because  he 
knew  I  would  not  like  to  listen  to  it.  It  may  be  that  is 
so,  or  maybe  I  would  like  to  listen  to  it;  but  the  fact  is  I 
very  seldom  get  the  chance  to  listen  to  anything  good  of 
me.  I  have  grown  so  used  to  being  spoken  ill  of  that  it 
does  not  sound  right  when  anybody  says  anything  good 
of  me.  I  feel  as  though  there  was  something  the  matter. 
I  think  it  is  Macaulay  who  says,  speaking  of  the  habits  of 
the  ancient  Germans  in  the  time  of  Caesar,  when  they  were 
excessive  drinkers.  He  says  that  they  drank  so  hard  and 
were  so  continuously  drunk  that  if  they  happened  to  get 
sober  they  thought  they  were  sick.  And  so  it  is  with  my- 
self. I  have  been  abused  so  much  that  when  anybody  like 
your  Chairman  here  says  something  good  of  me  I  think 
there  must  be  something  the  matter  with  me.  I  feel  sick.  I 
think  the  Comptroller  here  at  my  right  feels  a  little  bit 
that  way  too,  because  for  the  last  year  or  so  he  has  not 
been  dealt  with  any  too  gently  either  by  some  of  these 
abusers  of  me,  particularly  about  the  subways.  But  it  is 
all  over,  and  I  hope  well  over.  I  come  here  really  because 

208 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

your  Chairman  asked  me  to  come,  and  I  knew  of  no  way 
to  say  no.  We  see  him  over  in  the  Board  of  Estimate 
pretty  often.  We  almost  wind  the  clock  over  there  by 
him,  his  comings  in  and  goings  away  are  so  regular;  but 
he  always  has  something  to  say  that  is  helpful.  He 
doesn't  come  over  to  abuse  us  or  annoy  us.  We  sit  there 
sometimes  and  hear  ourselves  compared  to  Tweed  and 
ancient  malefactors  who  left  a  bad  memory  after  them. 
For  instance,  the  day  that  we  passed  the  subway  busi- 
ness, finally,  we  all  sat  up  there  in  a  row,  and  we  kept  as 
still  and  as  square  faced  as  we  could  while  five  people 
spoke.  I  think  they  were  sent  up  by  the  Hearst  news- 
paper office.  The  Comptroller  is  helping  me  out.  But  I 
was  going  to  say  just  what  he  suggested  to  me.  He  is 
not  able  to  remember,  and  neither  am  I  that  any  one  of 
them  was  quite  sane.  Those  are  the  kind  of  people  that 
Hearst  generally  sends  up  to  talk  to  us.  Now  and  then 
the  two  little  Pulitzers  help  add  to  the  number,  and  send 
up  two  or  three  puny  little  fellows  like  themselves  to  tell 
us  what  to  do.  But  on  this  particular  occasion  they 
called  us  Tweed  and  all  the  malefactors  that  have  pre- 
ceded us  for  50  years,  and  we  let  them  all  talk.  And 
one  of  them  went  back  to  the  rear  of  the  hall,  and  when 
everybody  had  said  all  he  wanted  to  say,  he  said,  well,  I 
have  this  to  say  anyhow,  that  this  is  the  first  time  in  my 
life  that  I  was  allowed  to  express  my  opinion  fully.  But 
others  come  over  there  to  help  us,  and  others  do  help  us. 
I  suppose  you  all  help  us.  Do  you?  I  am  looking 
around  to  see  if  I  can  see  somebody  to  blame,  but  I  don't 
see  anyone  it  so  happens.  That  is  what  we  need  in  office. 
We  need  a  good  word,  now  and  then,  even  though  we  do 
not  deserve  it.  It  makes  us  feel  better.  And  disposes  us 
to  do  better.  You  want  to  treat  your  public  officials  with 
common  decency.  We  do  not  ask  to  be  coddled.  We  do 
not  invite  everybody  to  agree  with  us  in  our  opinion.  On 
the  contrary  we  give  public  hearings  when  the  law  does 
not  require  it,  so  as  to  give  the  citizens  an  opportunity  to 
express  their  honest  opinions ;  and  as  I  whisper  to  my  as- 

209 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

sociates  next  to  me  now  and  then  when  a  bumptious  fel- 
low gets  up  to  talk  to  us  "  Now,  this  fellow  will  let  a  great 
flood  of  light  in  on  us,  or  possibly  we  can  let  a  little  ray 
of  light  in  on  him."  That  is  the  way  we  consider  it.  But 
the  citizens  can  be  very  helpful  to  our  officials  by  exercis- 
ing patience  and  intelligence.  Mere  abuse  is  no  good. 
We  have  received  infinite  help  in  the  large  things  which 
we  have  done  since  we  came  into  office  from  the  different 
associations  throughout  the  city  like  yours.  You  have 
sent  delegations.  Sometimes  you  have  differed  from  us. 
Sometimes  you  agree  with  us.  But  in  either  case  you 
helped  us,  because  your  difference  was  honest,  and  your 
help  was  honest.  But  when  things  degenerate  into  mere 
abuse  and  into  party  animosity — I  won't  say  party  ani- 
mosity, but  little  partisan  animosity — then  you  can  get 
very  little  good  out  of  government.  When  you  put  peo- 
ple into  office  that  settles  it.  From  that  hour  on  you 
want  to  help  them.  It  is  not  a  party  matter  at  all.  It  is 
a  matter  of  good  government.  And  now  if  you  will 
allow  me  to  leave  myself  out  of  the  case  just  for  one  mo- 
ment I  beg  to  say  that  looking  all  over  this  country  at  the 
cities  and  the  States,  and  looking  over  Europe  so  far  as  I 
am  familiar  with  Europe,  from  the  Comptroller  and  the 
Borough  Presidents,  to  the  heads  of  departments  of  the 
city,  there  is  not  a  more  competent  body  of  men  anywhere 
to  be  found  so  far  as  I  know.  Mr.  Pounds  told  me  this 
evening,  and  it  is  all  right,  Pounds,  for  me  to  mention  it, 
that  he  was  at  some  dinner  lately  and  the  man  next  to  him 
asked  him  if  he  was  a  college  graduate,  and  he  said  yes, 
and  the  man  laughed,  and  he  said,  well  I  didn't  think  there 
was  a  college  graduate  in  the  whole  city  government.  Just 
think  of  a  miserable  little  coot  like  that.  Why,  he  wasn't 
decent  enough  to  know  who  the  members  of  the  city  gov- 
ernment were.  That  was  what  wras  the  matter  with  him, 
and  there  are  too  many  like  him,  when  the  truth  is,  if 
you  take  the  elected  officers  of  this  city,  which  are  three 
in  number,  and  then  the  Borough  Presidents,  and  then  the 
heads  of  departments  of  the  city,  seven-tenths  of  them 

210 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

are  college  graduates  and  men  of  the  highest  standing. 
Most  of  them  were  men  of  large  business  themselves,  com- 
petent men,  scholars,  and  gentlemen.  Why,  it  does  me 
good  when  I  look  at  them.  I  wish  we  had  the  whole  out- 
fit in  this  room  to-night.  They  are  a  good  looking  lot  of 
fellows  too.  Present  company  excepted.  Mr.  Cleary 
says  he  saw  me  down  at  Richmond  at  the  waterways  con- 
vention. I  was  there.  I  was  at  Washington  at  another 
convention  similar  to  that,  and  in  other  parts  of  the  coun- 
try at  similar  conventions.  I  was  not  thinking  about  what 
he  has  been  talking  about,  that  some  people  there  knew  me 
by  repute  to  some  extent ;  but  what  did  me  good  at  all  of 
these  places  that  I  have  attended  was  to  see  some  of  our 
city  officials  here  get  up  and  make  speeches  on  subjects  that 
were  enlightening  to  these  conventions.  That  is  what  did 
me  good — to  let  those  people  get  the  sight  of  an  official  of 
the  city  of  New  York.  Why,  some  of  our  newspapers 
here  would  lead  the  rest  of  the  country  to  think  that  those 
in  office  here  are  a  lot  of  thugs.  They  are  pictured  as 
thugs  in  the  papers,  some  of  them  even  with  balls  and 
chains  on  their  legs ;  and  we  must  not  blame  the  rest  of  the 
country  if  they  think  there  is  some  truth  in  that,  although 
I  hope  we  have  said  enough  in  the  last  year  or  two  to  make 
the  whole  country  sit  up  and  take  notice  that  we  have  some 
newspapers  here  that  are  utterly  unworthy  of  belief  in 
any  respect  whatever.  They  are  that  because  their  pro- 
prietors are  that.  When  you  get  a  low  bred  newspaper 
you  have  got  a  low  bred  proprietor  behind  it.  Blood  will 
tell  in  everything.  But  I  will  not  go  on  at  length.  I 
arose  only  to  say  a  few  words.  You  have  a  long  toast  list. 
I  came  here  more  to  thank  the  people  of  this  locality  for 
the  assistance  they  have  rendered  us  with  regard  to  the 
docks,  with  regard  to  the  subways,  and  with  regard  to 
other  things  that  we  are  doing.  There  is  no  use  bringing 
up  things  that  are  past.  We  have  had  a  hard  struggle 
with  some  things,  but  we  have  worked  them  out  the  best 
we  knew  how.  This  must  be  said,  however,  in  any  gov- 
ernment, however  intelligent  or  however  good  it  is — and 

211 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

I  allude  to  government  of  course  among  a  free  people — 
however  good  and  intelligent  it  may  be,  most  of  what  is 
done  that  is  timely  and  good  originates  not  in  the  gov- 
ernment itself  but  from  the  outside.  Government  after 
all  only  registers  the  will  of  the  people  within  the  law.  I 
have  no  patience  at  all — I  may  as  well  say  it  plainly— 
with  those  elected  to  office  who  come  in  saying  that  they 
are  going  to  do  whatever  the  people  want.  That  is  no 
way  to  enter  into  office.  The  way  to  enter  into  office  is 
with  the  intention  of  doing  what  the  law  requires,  and 
then  within  the  law,  the  people  can  express  what  they 
want,  and  help  to  carry  it  out.  All  the  public  works  of 
the  city,  subway,  docks,  or  what  not,  are  things  with  which 
the  intelligent  people  are  familiar.  It  is  for  them  to  orig- 
inate things,  and  then  come  forward  to  the  government 
and  suggest  them  and  carry  them  out,  and  in  that  respect 
we  have  received  as  much  assistance  as  we  have  any  reason 
to  expect.  You  live  over  here  in  a  growing  neighborhood. 
Some  people  are  always  saying  that  they  wish  the  city  to 
grow  rapidly,  and  all  the  vacant  spaces  to  be  filled  in.  I 
know  all  those  who  own  vacant  real  estate  are  very  much 
of  that  point  of  view.  They  want  a  subway  in  every 
street.  But  that  really  is  not  the  view  to  take  of  it.  The 
city  ought  to  grow  normally.  We  have  no  reason  for 
rushing  it,  or  hurrying  it.  Our  duty  is  simply  to  keep  up 
with  the  growth  of  the  community,  and  to  do  the  things 
required  for  the  comfort  of  the  community.  Lincoln 
often  said  that  all  he  professed  to  do  was  to  keep  up  with 
the  people.  He  did  not  rate  himself  a  political  leader. 
He  said,  "  I  manage  to  keep  up  with  the  procession." 
That  was  his  homely  way  of  saying  it.  That  meant  that 
he  had  absolute  reliance  in  the  judgment  and  intelligence 
of  the  people;  and  when  he  said  people  he  did  not  mean 
every  fellow  with  no  visible  means  of  support  and  with  a 
patch  on  his  trousers.  That  is  not  what  he  meant.  But 
he  meant  the  intelligent  people,  the  good  people,  the  just 
people,  who  constitute  the  spine  of  society  and  keep  so- 
ciety in  order.  We  realize  all  that  in  what  we  have  been 

212 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

doing  amidst  the  abuse.  We  realize  the  inestimable  bene- 
fit which  societies  like  this  here  to-night  are  to  the  city 
when  they  are  directed  right,  when  they  are  patient,  and 
when  they  come  forward  not  to  scold  but  to  help.  The 
scolding  element  in  the  community  is  not  a  very  large  one, 
but  the  few  scolders  there  are  among  us  make  more  noise 
than  all  the  rest  of  us.  Dr.  Parkhurst  and  this  clergy- 
man over  here  in  Brooklyn  who  says  that  Brooklyn  is  the 
vestibule  of  hell,  make  more  noises  than  all  the  other 
clergymen  in  the  city,  don't  they  ?  And  yet  the  others  are 
all  working  and  helping  and  doing  the  best  they  can  for 
society  and  abusing  nobody.  If  they  see  something 
wrong  they  come  forward  and  talk  to  us,  and  help  and  call 
attention  to  it.  But  noise,  no.  "  Still  waters  run  deep." 
Or,  as  the  saying  is,  "  the  shallows  murmur  when  the  deeps 
are  dumb,"  and  to  use  one  more  expression,  one  stridulent 
grasshopper  in  the  angle  of  a  fence,  makes  more  noise  than 
the  noble  herd  nearby.  Pious  Dr.  Parkhurst.  Bilious 
Dr.  Parkhurst.  He  thinks  he  is  pious  when  he  is  only 
bilious.  Self  sufficient,  all  sufficient,  insufficient  Dr. 
Parkhurst.  Forgive  me,  but  he  is  a  man  of  vast  and 
varied  misinformation,  of  brilliant  mental  mcapacity  and 
of  prodigious  moral  requirements.  These  people  make 
much  noise  but  do  no  good.  Their  hearts  are  filled  with 
evil.  They  love  nobody.  They  do  not  want  to  help  the 
Comptroller.  They  do  not  want  to  help  the  Mayor. 
They  do  not  want  to  help  anybody.  They  want  to  find 
fault  for  their  own  exploitation  and  sensation.  Now 
these  people  we  forgive  of  course,  twice  a  day.  We  for- 
give them  but  we  desire  to  have  nothing  to  do  with  them. 
But  people  like  you  who  help  us  and  take  us  by  the  hand 
and  show  that  whatever  your  hope  is,  or  whatever  your 
prejudices  are,  you  still  have  an  honest  heart.  People 
like  that  we  welcome  every  hour  in  the  day.  The  latch 
string  of  the  City  Hall  and  the  Comptroller's  office  and 
in  all  of  the  offices  hangs  out  for  people  like  you  all  the 
time. 


213 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

The  "Single  Tax" 

(Speech  at  the  Lower  Rents  Exhibit,  29  Union  Square,  February 

17,  1913.) 

Mr.  Chairman  and  Gentlemen:  I  came  up  at  the  re- 
quest of  Mr.  Irigersoll,  just  to  say  a  few  words.  I  have 
known  him  for  many  years,  and  he  has  long  worked  in 
and  taught  these  matters.  Rent  is  caused  by  population. 
Where  there  is  no  population  there  is  no  rent ;  and  where 
the  population  becomes  congested  rent  becomes  high.  The 
congestion  of  population  produces  more  evils  than  high 
rent.  It  produces  all  sorts  of  physical  and  moral  evils,  as 
you  see  in  this  city  here.  Why  should  these  congestions 
of  population  exist?  I  may  ask.  There  is  plenty  of  room 
in  the  world.  All  the  people  on  this  globe  if  collected 
here  could  stand  up  in  the  city  of  New  York  and  each  one 
would  have  two  feet  square  to  stand  on,  if  I  remember 
right.  So  you  see  the  people  of  the  world  in  proportion 
to  land  space  are  not  so  many  after  all.  And  they  could 
all  be  put  in  the  State  of  Texas  and  have  about  two  or 
three  acres  apiece,  I  don't  remember  exactly.  And  yet 
these  congestions  of  population  occur  here  and  there  all 
over  the  world,  and  create  many  social  and  physical  dis- 
orders, as  well  as  this  high  rent  which  you  proclaim 
against.  Your  object  is  to  reduce  rents.  How  do  you 
go  about  reducing  rents  ?  Why,  there  is  only  one  way  to 
reduce  rents — or  two  ways,  rather.  One  is  to  disperse 
the  population;  the  other  way  is  to  increase  the  number 
of  houses  all  the  time,  and  make  supply  match  or  exceed 
demand.  Rent  depends  on  supply  and  demand  of  houses. 
Some  people  think  that  rents  rise  as  taxes  rise.  Some 
people  think  that  all  a  landlord  has  to  do  is  to  add  his 
taxes  to  his  rents.  But  these  things  are  not  so.  Taxes 
may  be  going  up  while  rents  are  going  down.  I  saw 
the  time  in  Brooklyn  when  we  were  paying  a  rate  of  $3 
in  the  100  for  taxes,  and  yet  rents  did  not  go  up  while 
the  taxes  were  going  up.  They  went  down,  and  were  far 
lower  than  over  here  where  the  tax  rate  was  much  lower. 

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MAYOR    GAYNQR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

You  cannot  increase  rents  by  high  taxes,  except  in  an  in- 
direct way.  If  taxes  are  so  onerous  on  the  buildings  that 
people  stop  erecting  buildings,  why  then  you  have  a 
scarcity  of  houses  and  buildings ;  and  in  that  indirect  way 
there  may  be  an  increase  in  rents  brought  about  under  the 
rule  of  supply  and  demand.  Now,  these  are  first  prin- 
ciples that  I  am  talking  to  you  about.  And  yet  here  I 
am  in  the  presence  of  the  philosophers  on  this  subject.  I 
suppose  you  will  listen  to  me  with  impatience  expecting 
me  to  launch  out  into  something  new  on  the  subject. 
There  is  nothing  new.  You  single  taxers  have  developed 
the  whole  case,  so  far  as  I  know.  I  have  heard  you  here 
and  there.  If  you  have  not  made  as  much  progress  as 
you  think  you  should  have  made  I  think  I  can  state  one 
reason  for  it.  In  your  speeches  and  writings  in  years 
past  you  have  been  a  little  too  cock-sure.  Some  of  you 
have  been  acrimonious.  Some  of  you  say  you  think  other 
people  are  very  dense  and  ignorant  because  they  do  not 
think  as  you  do.  In  other  words,  you  try  to  ram  your 
theories  down  the  throats  of  people  before  they  are  ready 
to  receive  them,  the  same  as  they  feed  Strasburg  geese  to 
make  their  livers  swell.  No  one  ever  succeeded  that  way. 
Franklin  treats  on  that  in  his  Autobiography.  He  says 
the  way  to  convince  a  man  is  to  express  a  little  doubt  about 
it  yourself.  Just  shake  your  head,  and  wag  it  a  few 
times  to  this  side  and  then  to  that,  and  may  be  shrug  one 
shoulder  and  then  the  other,  and  say,  "  Well,  it  seems  so 
to  me,  but  I  am  not  clear  and  may  be  wrong  about  it." 
And  then  the  other  fellow  will  take  it  all  in,  and  turn 
around  and  try  to  convince  you.  That  is  the  way  to  con- 
vince people.  I  am  sure  some  of  your  orators  do  not 
adopt  that  method,  because  I  have  listened  to  them  now 
and  then.  This  single  tax  question  has  been  now  widely 
discussed  all  over  the  world.  The  phrase  "  single  tax  "  I 
never  thought  any  too  happy.  The  object  is  to  concen- 
trate all  taxation  on  the  land.  Now,  to  uninitiated  people 
who  are  listening  to  me  that  means  on  the  land  and  build- 
ings and  improvements.  But  it  doesn't  mean  any  such 

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MAYOR  GAYNOITS  LETTERS  AND  SPEECHES 

thing.     Your  theory  is  that  the  taxes  should  be  put  on 
the  bare  land  alone,  and  that  the  buildings  and  houses  and 
improvements  should  all  go  free  of  taxation.     That  in  a 
word  is  the  so-called  George  theory.     I  may  express  it 
otherwise  by  saying  that  your  theory  of  taxation  is  to  ab- 
sorb all  ground  rents  into  the  public  treasury  by  way  of 
taxation ;  that  is  to  say,  the  rental  value  of  the  bare  ground, 
without  anything  on  it.     Never  mind  the  buildings,  you 
say,  but  tax  the  land  up  to  its  rental  value,  and  get  the 
whole  ground  rent  into  the  public  treasury  as  a  tax.    Here 
is  a  bare  lot.     Well,  it  has  a  rental  value,  or  it  has  none. 
If  it  is  worth  anything  it  has  a  rental  value  of,  say,  4  per 
cent.,  or  5  per  cent.,  of  such  value.     If  the  lot  is  worth 
say,  $1,000,  then  presumably  it  has  a  rental  value  of  4 
per  cent,  of  $1,000,  or  5  per  cent.,  and  that  should  all  be 
levied  as  a  tax  according  to  your  theory.     And  then  here 
is  another  lot  with  a  building  on  it,  a  lot  worth  $5,000,  say, 
and  the  building  worth  $10,000.    Well  if  the  place  is  taxed 
$500  under  the  present  system  of  taxation,  that  means  that 
two-thirds  of  it  is  on  the  building  and  the  other  third  on 
the  land.     Your  theory  would  distinguish  between  the 
building  and  the  land  and  find  out  the  value  of  the  land, 
the  lot,  and  tax  that  according  to  its  ground  rent,  and  no 
more,  so  as  to  draw  the  whole  ground  rent  into  the  treas- 
ury, and  let  the  building  go  free.     Now,  that  is  the  theory. 
But  every  man  out  of  one  hundred  that  you  speak  to  on 
this  subject  thinks  you  mean  to  tax  the  buildings  and  the 
land,  which  is  not  the  theory  at  all.  All  buildings,  all  im- 
provements, being  done  by  the  hand  of  man,  let  that  all  go 
free  and  tax  only  the  land  which  God  made,  according  to 
its  rental  value.     The  rental  value  is  not  created  by  the 
owner,  but  by  the  growth  of  population,  by  society  at 
large,  and  therefore  belongs  not  to  any  individual,  but  to 
society  at  large.     That  is  your  theory.     And  you  say  that 
that  would  produce  revenue  enough  to  pay  all  the  ex- 
penses of  government.     I  do  not  know  whether  that  is 
true  or  not.     I  have  never  run  it  out  carefully  enough  to 
know.     I  did  once  run  it  out  in  the  city  of  Brooklyn  when 

216 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

the  taxes  were  high  there,  and  as  near  as  I  could  make  out 
the  taxes  being  paid  there  were  equivalent  to  the  ground 
rent  of  the  whole  city.  I  thought  so,  yet  I  may  have  been 
mistaken.  I  mean  that  if  the  total  tax  were  taken  it  was 
equivalent  to  all  the  ground  rent  in  the  city  at  that  time. 
Now,  the  taking  of  the  ground  rent  by  taxation  may  be  a 
perfect  system  of  taxation,  as  philosophers  and  econo- 
mists admit  the  world  over.  But  there  is  a  difficulty 
about  it.  You  know  things  in  this  world  are  not  always 
ideal.  And  it  is  pretty  hard  to  get  them  ideal.  I  know 
they  are  not  ideal  with  me.  I  have  a  pretty  tough  time 
of  it.  You  have  to  deal  with  all  sorts  of  minds  and  con- 
ditions, and  they  do  not  produce  the  ideal.  They  produce 
a  sort  of  average,  and  that  average  is  very  often  a  pretty 
poor  one.  But  we  have  this  great  satisfaction,  that  it  is 
getting  better  in  the  world  all  the  time.  The  average  of 
things  grows  steadily  better  year  by  year  all  over  the 
world,  I  think,  and  particularly  here.  The  difficulty  that 
I  perceive  about  putting  your  system  of  taxation  into 
operation  is  this,  namely,  that  you  cannot  do  it  now  with- 
out injustice.  If  society  had  started  in  that  way,  it 
would  have  been  easy.  But  nowT  it  is  difficult  to  change 
without  doing  injustice.  We  have  to  admit  that  the  value 
of  the  naked  land  is  created  not  by  the  fellow  who  has  his 
foot  on  it  and  owns  it,  but  by  the  increase  of  population 
and  industry  all  around  it.  Why,  within  the  last  few 
years  in  this  city  the  lands  over  in  Queens  and  over  in 
Brooklyn  in  the  outskirts  which  sold  from  $100  to  $500 
an  acre  are  selling  for  more  than  that  per  lot,  20  feet 
front.  You  have  to  pay  more  for  a  lot  than  those  who 
bought  up  these  lands  paid  by  the  acre  when  they  bought 
them.  They  have  not  done  anything  to  it;  it  is  the  same 
bare  land.  But  you  and  I  and  the  rest  of  us  who  want  to 
buy  a  lot  always  have  to  pay  that  increased  price,  although 
we  created  it  ourselves.  We  do  not  get  it  by  the  acre. 
Others  buy  it  by  the  acre  and  sit  down  on  it  until  popula- 
tion increases  around  it,  and  gives  it  an  increased  value, 
and  then  you  and  I  pay  these  high  prices  for  the  land 

217 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

and  we  build  a  house  on  it.  So  that  if  the  theory  of  ab- 
sorbing all  the  ground  rent  is  put  into  force  at  once,  why, 
John  the  butcher  and  William  the  baker,  and  those  who 
bought  these  lands  and  built  on  them  are  the  ones  that 
would  suffer.  Whoever  has  the  land  has  to  suffer.  Be- 
cause to  absorb  by  taxation  the  whole  ground  rent  of  the 
land  would  destroy  the  value  of  the  land.  Now,  it  is  very 
easy  to  say  that  the  present  method  is  unjust — that  inas- 
much as  society,  not  the  owner,  creates  values  of  the  bare 
land,  society  should  own  these  values  and  have  the  benefit 
of  them  by  taking  them  into  the  treasury  by  taxation  as 
I  have  described.  Now,  as  a  moral  proposition  you  would 
have  to  cudgel  your  head  a  good  deal  to  get  away  from 
that.  But  the  trouble  is  to  put  it  in  force  without  doing 
injury  to  everybody  who  has  bought  land  on  the  present 
basis.  It  would,  in  fact,  be  a  confiscation  of  the  land. 
There  is  no  doubt  about  that.  We  may  as  well  speak 
plain  about  it.  I  am  speaking  of  the  bare  land,  mind. 
So  it  all  comes  down  to  this,  namely,  in  place  of  adopting 
at  the  beginning  this  system  of  absorbing  the  ground  rents 
by  taxation,  society  by  universal  consent,  or  by  the  con- 
sent of  the  majority,  adopted  a  different  system,  and  has 
lived  by  it  up  to  the  present  time;  and  the  rule  is  that 
when  society  does  a  thing,  creates  a  condition,  although 
that  condition  is  not  ideal,  or  not  even  right,  economically, 
nevertheless  society  should  not  suddenly  change  from  that 
condition  if  it  thereby  wrongs  a  great  many  people,  or 
most  people,  or  even  a  respectable  minority  of  people. 
What  society  creates  and  suffers  and  builds  up,  society 
must  bear.  If  one  of  you  went  over  to  Queens  county 
and  bought  a  lot  for  $1,000,  whereas  the  man  you  bought 
of  bought  the  whole  tract  for  only  $100  an  acre,  for  us  to 
put  your  system  of  taxation  into  vogue  now  would  destroy 
your  lot;  and  your  $1,000  is  wiped  out  with  one  stroke; 
because  land,  you  know,  has  no  value  except  what  value 
the  ground  rent  gives  it,  its  usable  value,  its  rentable 
value.  And  when  that  is  all  absorbed  into  the  treasury 
your  land  is  there,  to  be  sure,  but  your  $1,000  is  not  there. 

218 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

It  is  wiped  out.  You  have  got  your  foot  on  the  lot  yet,  but 
in  place  of  being  worth  $1,000  it  is  not  worth  $1.  So  that 
the  difficulty  is  to  put  in  force  this  system  of  yours.  I 
refrain  from  arguing  it  either  pro  or  con.  All  1  need  say 
is  that  I  have  tried  to  keep  up  with  it  as  I  have  with  all 
else  in  the  world  that  has  been  happening  under  my  nose. 
I  believe  I  have  not  been  afraid  to  look  into  anything.  I 
never  condemn  a  man  because  he  has  something  new  in  his 
head,  or  thinks  he  has ;  and  sometimes  they  only  think  they 
have,  you  know.  I  say  to  him,  "  You  are  the  man  I  have 
been  looking  for,  what  is  it  you  have  in  your  head?  Let 
us  talk.  Maybe  I  can  let  a  little  light  into  your  head,  or 
you  can  let  a  great  flood  of  light  into  mine."  I  had  the 
first  edition  of  Henry  George's  book,  and  I  have  it  yet. 
And  while  I  was  forced  to  admit  that  the  system  of  taxa- 
tion it  advocates  was  ideal,  I  could  not  concur  in  his  chap- 
ter which  advocated  the  putting  of  it  in  force  at  once,  and 
thereby  confiscating  all  the  individual  or  private  property 
in  land  which  society  by  the  present  system  had  built  up. 
And  society  has  done  the  best  it  could,  as  all  sorts  of  in- 
terests and  all  sorts  of  minds  have  settled  on  this  method 
of  private  ownership  of  land,  and  of  the  buildings  being 
considered  a  part  of  the  land,  and  of  the  taxation  being  on 
the  land  and  buildings  together.  Mr.  Ingersoll  wrote  me 
and  tells  me  that  your  object  here  is  to  further  your 
propaganda,  but  only  gradually,  namely,  to  lessen  year 
by  year  the  valuation  of  the  buildings  on  land,  one  twenty- 
fifth  this  year,  one  twenty-fifth  next  year,  and  so  on.  In 
that  gradual  way  you  see  that  in  25  years  you  would  have 
eliminated  the  buildings  entirely,  and  all  the  tax  would 
fall  on  the  land.  So  in  place  of  killing  at  one  stroke  my 
friend  over  in  Queens  who  paid  $1,000  for  his  lot  you 
would  kill  him  gradually,  one  twenty-fifth  each  year, 
and  in  25  years  they  have  got  him  all  done  up.  They  say 
you  would  not  feel  it,  it  would  be  done  so  gradually.  Now 
I  have  no  objection  to  having  this  matter  discussed  here 
or  elsewhere,  and  to  join  in.  I  have  concealed  nothing  of 


219 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

my  own  opinions  since  I  have  been  Mayor.  A  man  told 
me  last  Thursday,  he  said,  "  Don't  you  go  up  to  that  place 
and  talk  on  this  subject.  It  will  hurt  you."  I  told  him 
I  was  ready  to  be  hurt,  but  that  I  did  not  think  it  would 
hurt  me  at  all,  that  nobody  ever  hurt  himself  by  having 
an  open  mind  and  being  ready  to  consider  and  discuss 
things  that  concern  human  kind.  I  do  not  know  whether 
you  can  bring  it  about.  I  do  know  that  the  chapter  in 
Mr.  George's  book  that  proposed  to  do  it  right  off  the  reel 
on  the  ground  that  all  injustice  should  be  remedied  forth- 
with did  not  commend  itself  to  me.  While  I  might  be 
willing  to  bear  it  myself  I  cannot  help  saying  that  many 
people  would  have  a  gross  injustice  done  to  them  by  put- 
ting into  immediate  operation  any  such  system.  But  this 
method  of  gradually  doing  it  is  not  open  to  the  full  force 
of  that  objection.  If  you  can  do  it  so  gradually  and  so 
slyly  that  we  neither  feel  it  nor  know  it,  why  it  may  be  we 
had  better  let  you  go  ahead  and  do  it.  I  don't  think  we 
will  object  very  loud  if  we  do  not  feel  it  or  if  it  does  not 
pinch  us  or  do  us  any  harm.  Now,  how  could  it  do  good, 
you  ask  me,  to  remove  the  tax  on  buildings  and  concen- 
trate it  all  on  the  land  on  which  the  buildings  stand  and 
the  bare  land  not  yet  occupied?  Why,  they  say  it  would 
do  it  this  way;  and  it  brings  me  back  to  what  I  said  at 
the  start.  If  buildings  were  no  longer  taxed  that  would 
stimulate  people  to  build  buildings;  but  when  you  clap  a 
tax  on  buildings  then  people  are  not  in  a  hurry  to  build 
them.  They  have  to  calculate  it  all  out  and  see  where 
they  are  coming  out,  where  they  can  get  the  rents  to  pay 
interest  and  taxes.  But  if  buildings  were  freed  from 
taxes  there  would  be  more  buildings  put  up ;  and  the  more 
buildings  put  up  the  lower  rents  would  be.  So  I  am  back 
now  at  the  quitting  point,  that  is  to  say,  I  am  back  to  my 
starting  point — that  rents  of  buildings  depend  on  supply 
and  demand;  therefore,  any  system  of  taxation  which 
stimulates  the  building  of  buildings,  which  multiplies  the 
number  of  buildings,  automatically  and  necessarily  lowers 


220 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

rents ;  and  it  seems  that  is  what  you  are  driving  at,  to  get 
lower  rents.  So  go  ahead.  If  you  can  do  it  I  am  satis- 
fied; but  whether  I  have  helped  you  any  by  coming  up 
here  I  do  not  know. 

International  Peace 

March  22,  1910. 

Gentlemen  of  the  American  Peace  and  Arbitration 
League:  The  civilization  of  the  West  seems  to  be 
reaching  that  point  in  its  slow  development  along  the  lines 
of  the  precepts  of  Christianity  when  as  a  matter  of  hu- 
manity, or,  it  may  be,  only  of  self-interest,  or,  it  may  be, 
of  both,  it  is  calling  for  universal  international  peace,  and 
especially  peace  between  the  West  and  the  East.  We 
have  to  ask  ourselves  in  a  sober  Christian  spirit  whether 
this  can  ever  come  about  until  the  civilization  of  the  West 
first  recognize  that  the  East  has  a  civilization  also.  We 
shall  never  establish  peace  with  the  East  by  persisting  in 
the  unkindness  of  calling  it  uncivilized.  No  universal 
peace  can  be  based  on  a  bigoted  or  uncharitable  conception 
by  our  civilization  of  theirs.  That  the  civilization  of  the 
East  is  different  to  ours  will  not  justify  us  in  continuing 
to  call  the  East  uncivilized.  It  has  a  civilization  all  its 
own,  a  thousand  years  older  than  ours,  and  though  quite 
different  to  ours,  we  ought  in  Christian  charity  to  be  able 
to  perceive  all,  yea,  the  very  much,  that  is  good  in  it.  The 
East  was  civilized,  was  learned  in  the  sciences,  schooled 
in  philosophy  and  the  precepts  of  virtue,  and  had  the  ele- 
gancies of  life  including  a  splendid  architecture,  when  our 
ancestors  still  ran  naked  in  the  woods  and  lived  in  holes  in 
the  ground.  Our  own  sacred  literature  we  borrowed  or 
took  from  the  East.  All  of  it,  Old  Testament  and  New, 
was  written  by  Asiatics,  with  the  possible  exception  of  the 
Gospel  according  to  John.  The  civilization  of  the  East 
may  not  have  progressed,  and  may  to  some  extent  have 
retrograded,  in  the  last  thousand  years.  That  depends, 
however,  on  the  point  of  view  of  what  civilization  is.  From 

221 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

being  warlike,  the  nations  of  the  East  generally  during 
that  period  of  time  became  unwarlike  and  peaceful  na- 
tions, in  fact,  non-resistent  on  principle,  like  our  Quakers, 
while  the  Christian  nations  of  the  West  have  continued 
warlike  and  aggressive  all  the  while,  most  of  the  time  in 
the  name  of  Christianity  itself,  even  when  warring  with 
one  another.  The  constant  aggressions  of  the  West  upon 
the  peaceful  and  unwarlike  East,  instigated  by  commercial 
enterprise,  if  not  commercial  greed,  have  been  invariably 
in  the  name  of  Christianity.  We  have  taken  possession 
of  their  choicest  provinces  and  their  best  ports.  And  now 
in  the  progress  of  time  we  call  for  universal  peace. 
Whether  it  is  within  God's  Providence  that  the  long 
gathering  resentment  engendered  by  Europe's  trespasses 
on  the  Eastern  nations  can  be  allayed  without  war  unless 
amends  and  restitution  be  first  made,  is  a  matter  for  sober 
thought.  Let  us  hope  and  pray  that  justice  be  done,  and 
that  lasting  compromises  and  adjustments  be  made,  so 
that  there  be  no  need  to  resort  to  war  for  the  redress  of 
wrongs.  That  the  mind  of  the  East  is  receding  from  the 
ethical  precepts  which  made  it  non-combatant  is  now  mani- 
fest. Japan  has  already  completely  given  them  up,  and 
emerged  as  a  mighty  combatant  with  the  nations  of  the 
West.  We  are  now  pleased  to  say  that  she  has  become 
civilized  and  taken  her  place  among  the  civilized  nations 
of  the  West;  not  because  she  has  adopted  the  precepts  of 
Christianity,  or  the  fundamental  precepts  of  our  civiliza- 
tion, or  abandoned  any  of  her  own,  for  she  has  not;  but, 
it  would  seem,  only  because  she  has  resorted  to  the  use  of 
gunpowder  as  strong  and  cannon  as  large  as  our  own. 
The  slow  growth  of  the  precepts  of  Him  of  Peace  who 
walked  and  taught  beneath  the  bended  palms  of  Palestine 
2,000  years  ago,  may  now  at  last  in  the  slow  progress  of 
time  be  inspiring  the  nations  of  the  West  to  advocate  and 
proclaim  peace  on  earth  and  good  will  to  all  men  and  all 
nations.  Let  us  hope  that  the  spirit  of  war  and  aggres- 
sion may  not  be  aroused  and  grow  up  in  the  East  while  it 
is  decaying  and  disappearing  in  the  West.  Let  us  do  our 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

part  to  avoid  it  by  seeing  that  Christian  charity  and  justice 
be  done  to  the  East  by  the  West,  so  that  the  peaceful 
spirit  of  a  thousand  years  in  the  East  may  be  retained  in 
conjunction  with  the  same  growing  spirit  in  the  West,  to 
the  end  that  around  the  world  there  shall  be  a  universal 
peace,  founded  on  the  universal  brotherhood  of  all  men 
and  all  nations,  West  and  East,  undisturbed  by  the  acri- 
mony of  religious  tenet  or  national  or  racial  arrogance. 
Though  Christianity  has  done  much  it  has  been  a  slow 
growth.  It  took  nearly  2,000  years  of  Christianity  to 
strike  the  shackle  from  the  slave.  When  it  examines  its 
own  slow  history,  no  reason  will  be  found  to  view  other 
civilizations  otherwise  than  in  the  spirit  of  toleration  and 
peace.  This  spirit  alone  can  bring  universal  peace  on 
earth. 

The  Tariff,  High  Prices  and  Gold 

(Speech  delivered  February  8,  1912.) 

Mr.  Chairman  and  Gentlemen:  The  question  before 
the  country  is  not  one  of  free  trade,  but  of  levying  our 
tariff  on  imports  in  a  way  which  while  it  raises  a  sufficient 
revenue  will  work  the  least  injury  and  do  the  most  good 
to  the  people  of  the  country  as  a  whole.  That  idea  took 
root  among  us  when  we  were  still  British  colonies 
struggling  for  independence,  and  has  grown  ever  since. 
No  doubt  it  has  branched  out,  now  and  again,  into  abuses 
and  into  favoritism  by  law  to  individuals  or  classes,  which 
is  the  worst  of  all  abuses  in  government.  It  is  these  abuses 
we  want  to  do  away  with,  and  that  is  the  issue. 

TARIFF  CHANGES  NEED  TO  BE  GRADUAL  AND  PRUDENT 

But  we  may  not  prudently  entertain  the  notion  of 
doing  away  with  our  immense  tariff  structure  at  one 
stroke.  In  that  way  we  would  create  disorder  and  panic, 
and  do  great  harm  to  honest  business  and  honest  people. 
Our  tariff  system  has  been  long  in  the  building — even  from 
colonial  days,  as  I  have  said.  To  pull  it  down  all  at  once 
would  be  a  revolution,  and  lead  to  great  disasters.  When 

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MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

society  creates  any  system  by  law,  and  especially  after  it 
has  fostered  it  for  a  long  time,  and  every  one  has  con- 
formed to  it,  society  should  not  do  away  with  it  except  in  a 
way  so  well  considered  and  gradual  as  to  do  no  unreason- 
able harm  to  individuals  and  to  the  community.  Even  a 
tethered  bull  who  has  wound  around  his  stake  while 
grazing  until  he  has  brought  his  nose  up  against  it,  has  to 
slowly  unwind  again  sooner  than  tear  his  nose  to  pieces  in 
an  effort  to  get  away. 

HISTORY  OF  BUILDING  UP  OF  OUR  TARIFF  SYSTEM 

I  say  our  tariff  system  again,  for  system  it  is.  It  may 
serve  a  purpose  amidst  so  much  talk  to  see  how  our  tariff 
system,  with  all  of  its  favoritisms,  injustices  and  crudities, 
has  gradually  grown  up.  It  is  the  result  of  repeated  votes 
of  the  country  on  the  question.  There  are  signs  of  a  real- 
izing sense  throughout  the  country  that  we  have  gone  to 
extremes  and  ought  to  recede. 

After  we  had  achieved  independence  as  a  nation,  one 
of  our  first  aspirations  was  not  to  remain  dependent  on 
foreign  countries  for  manufactured  articles.  The  people 
of  the  colonies  had  been  subjected  to  that  condition — had 
been  admonished  that  they  should  be  agriculturists  and 
depend  on  the  mother  country  for  manufactured  goods — 
and  were  much  averse  to  it.  That  was  one  of  their  griev- 
ances. Hence  we  find  that  the  tariff  law  of  1789 — the 
first  passed  after  the  adoption  of  the  constitution — was 
drawn  for  protection  as  well  as  to  raise  revenue.  The  next 
tariff  act,  that  of  1794,  went  still  further  in  the  direction 
of  protection  against  foreign  imports  and  in  favor  of  our 
small  struggling  home  industries.  The  tariff  act  of  1816 
continued  in  the  same  direction.  And  so  it  went  on  with- 
out much  if  any  objection  until  after  1830,  when  some 
States  and  localities  began  to  strongly  object  that  since 
they  were  solely  agricultural  they  were  receiving  no  bene- 
fit from  this  tariff  system.  The  matter  was  brought  into 
party  contentions  in  that  way.  There  followed  some  re- 
duction of  tariff  duties.  The  tariff  act  of  1857  went  in 

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MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

that  direction  and  made  wool  free.  The  commercial  hard 
times  which  ensued  made  the  tariff  question  still  more 
acute.  It  became  more  than  ever  a  party  question.  But 
the  extremes  to  which  tariff  taxation  was  to  attain  later 
were  not  then  thought  of.  I  do  not  suppose  that  Hamilton, 
and  later  Clay,  who  favored  a  reasonable  protection,  ever 
foresaw  the  unscientific  extremes  it  was  to  grow  to. 

WAR  TARIFFS 

In  1861  the  so-called  Morrill  Tariff  Act  was  passed. 
It  was  based  on  the  principle  of  protection.  During  the 
Civil  War  duties  were  put  on  and  raised  to  get  more 
revenue,  but  also  with  an  eye  to  protection.  The  Act  of 
1864  went  still  further,  and  into  high  protection,  by  which 
I  mean  more  than  the  protection  of  American  wages. 
After  the  close  of  the  war  manufacturers  had  grown  so 
used  to  high  protective  tariffs  that  they  loudly  objected 
to  any  proposal  to  reduce  them.  These  tariffs  did  more 
than  protect  wages — they  added  to  profits.  The  Act  of 
1883  continued  in  the  line  of  high  protection.  In  the  Til- 
den  presidential  campaign  the  Democratic  platform  de- 
clared that  all  Custom  House  taxation  should  be  for  rev- 
enue only,  and  he  won,  so  great  was  the  dissatisfaction 
with  tariffs  that  were  deemed  unconscionable.  Cleveland 
was  elected  eight  years  later,  namely,  in  1884.  His  party 
won  not  so  much  on  the  tariff,  or  any  other  issue,  it  may 
be,  as  on  things  that  entered  into  the  personal  honesty  of 
the  two  candidates,  for  the  vote  was  a  close  one.  On  ac- 
count of  certain  things  in  the  past  career  of  Mr.  Elaine, 
he  was  unacceptable  to  a  large  number  in  his  own  party. 
When  Mr.  Cleveland  ran  the  second  time  the  issue  was 
distinctly  on  the  protective  tariff,  but  he  was  beaten.  My 
own  observation  at  the  time  was  that  many  Democrats 
feared  that  Mr.  Cleveland  really  wanted  free  trade,  and 
were  not  ready  to  go  so  far,  and  that  he  was  beaten  in 
that  way.  During  the  ensuing  Republican  administration 
under  President  Harrison,  the  McKinley  Tariff  Act  was 
passed.  It  went  to  the  extreme  of  high  protection,  and 

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MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

alarmed  and  alienated  those  who  no  more  wanted  the  ex- 
treme of  protection  than  the  extreme  of  free  trade.  At 
the  next  election  Mr.  Cleveland  came  in  as  President 
again  on  the  issue  of  tariff  reduction.  Then  followed  the 
Wilson  Tariff  Act.  It  was  the  result  of  compromises.  It 
was  found  that  Democratic  Representatives  and  Senators 
from  States  having  protected  interests  were  not  always 
willing  to  give  up  such  protection.  I  need  only  mention 
the  case  of  sugar,  without  raking  up  the  scandal  which 
grew  out  of  the  defeat  by  the  votes  of  Democratic  Rep- 
resentatives and  Senators  of  the  proposal  to  put  it  on  the 
free  list.  What  occurred  during  that  Congress  made  men 
see  how  largely  this  tariff  question  is  local  and  selfish. 
When  the  Republicans  came  in  at  the  next  election  under 
McKinley  the  Dingley  Tariff  Act  was  passed.  Like  the 
McKinley  Act  it  was  based  on  high  protection.  We  have 
since  had  the  Payne  Act,  which  follows  the  McKinley 
and  Dingley  Acts.  It  is  not  easy  to  say  that  the  tariff 
question  had  any  influence  in  the  last  three  Presidential 
elections.  They  were  complicated  by  other  issues,  that  of 
joint  metallic  money  being  paramount  and  controlling  in 
at  least  one  of  them. 

SHOULD  NOT  CREATE  FAVORITISM  OR  INJUSTICE 

This  review  suffices  to  remind  us  that  the  question 
which  confronts  us  is  not  one  of  free  trade,  but  of  a  judi- 
cious but  firm  reduction  of  the  tariff.  All  of  its  extremes 
should  be  cut  out.  Free  trade  is  a  long  way  off.  We  must 
have  sufficient  revenue,  and,  therefore,  an  import  tariff 
tax.  But  it  should  be  so  applied  as  to  produce  no  injus- 
tice or  favoritism. 

Let  us  then  stand  to  the  assertion  of  principle  that  we 
recognize  no  excuse  for  a  protective  tariff  on  any  article 
except  to  protect  the  American  workingman  from  having 
his  wages  run  down  to  the  level  of  wages  in  the  country 
which  produces  that  article.  When  a  tariff  tax  goes  be- 
yond this,  the  excess  should  be  cut  off.  Such  excess  does 
not  benefit  the  workingman.  It  makes  every  one  pay  to 

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MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

aggrandize  a  few.  It  is  a  scandalous  thing  to  have  a  tariff 
tax  on  manufactured  articles  so  high  as  to  enable  the  man- 
ufacturer of  such  articles  in  this  country  to  sell  them 
abroad  at  a  profit  at  a  price  lower  than  is  exacted  in  this 
country. 

And  we  must  stand  to  this  further  principle,  namely, 
that,  except  for  revenue  only,  there  is  no  excuse  at  all  for  a 
tariff  tax  on  imported  articles  which,  from  peculiarities  of 
soil  or  clime,  or  any  other  special  and  abiding  cause,  we 
cannot  produce  at  all,  or  cannot  produce  enough  of  them 
for  our  consumption.  If  our  lands  are  generally  of  so  high 
a  grade,  for  instance,  that  they  are  put  to  a  more  profitable 
use  than  sheep  raising,  and  therefore  we  do  not  and  in  the 
nature  of  things  will  not  produce  wool  enough  for  our  own 
use,  then  there  should  be  no  tariff  on  wool,  unless  out  of 
necessity  for  revenue.  And  so  on  all  down  the  list. 

ENLIGHTENED  JUDGMENT  OF  COUNTRY  TO  DECIDE 

Let  the  question  be  submitted  to  the  enlightened  judg- 
ment of  the  country.  Mark  well  that  public  opinion  on 
the  subject  has  now  grown  to  be  stronger  than  mere  party 
opinion.  I  feel  that  I  am  not  mistaken  in  this. 

President  McKinley  saw  plainly  that  the  gathering 
sentiment  of  the  nation  would  not  put  up  any  longer  with 
a  protective  tariff  which  goes  beyond  protection  to  Ameri- 
can wages,  and  was  preparing  to  yield  thereto.  Let  me 
quote  what  he  said  in  his  speech  at  the  Buffalo  Exposition 
immediately  before  his  unfortunate  assassination : 

'  We  must  not  repose  in  fancied  security  that 
we  can  forever  sell  everything  and  buy  little  or 
nothing.  If  such  a  thing  were  possible,  it  would 
not  be  best  for  us  or  for  those  with  whom  we  deal. 
We  should  take  from  our  customers  such  of  their 
products  as  we  can  use  without  harm  to  our  indus- 
tries and  labor.  Reciprocity  is  the  natural  out- 
growth of  our  wonderful  industrial  development 
under  the  domestic  policy  now  firmly  established. 
What  we  produce  beyond  our  domestic  consump- 

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MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

tion  must  have  a  vent  abroad.  The  excess  must  be 
relieved  through  a  foreign  outlet,  and  we  should 
sell  anywhere  we  can  and  buy  wherever  the  buying 
will  enlarge  our  sales  and  productions,  and  thereby 
make  a  greater  demand  for  home  labor.  The  pe- 
riod of  exclusiveness  is  past.  The  expansion  of  our 
trade  and  commerce  is  the  pressing  problem.  Com- 
mercial wars  are  unprofitable.  A  policy  of  good 
will  and  friendly  trade  relations  will  prevent  re- 
prisals. Reciprocity  treaties  are  in  harmony  with 
the  spirit  of  the  times.  Measures  of  retaliation  are 
not.  If  perchance  some  of  our  tariffs  are  no  longer 
needed  for  revenue  or  to  encourage  and  protect 
our  industries  at  home,  why  should  they  not  be 
employed  to  extend  and  promote  our  markets 
abroad?" 

Public  opinion  is  now  ripe  for  the  change.  Let  us  not 
disappoint  it.  Let  us  go  with  it.  I  do  not  say  let  us  lead 
it.  Enlightened  public  opinion  in  this  country  is  such 
that  the  statesman  does  enough  who  divines  it,  keeps  up 
with  it  and  conforms  to  it. 

HIGH  PRICES 

The  kindred  subject  which  you  have  assigned  to  me 
in  connection  with  the  tariff  is  that  of  high  prices.  Now, 
of  course,  a  protective  tariff  raises  prices.  That  is  what 
it  is  designed  for.  That  is  the  reason  why  it  is  levied.  But 
in  view  of  the  complaint  about  present  high  prices,  it 
should  in  justice  be  pointed  out  that  our  tariff  is  not  wholly 
responsible  therefor.  The  tariff  is  not  responsible  for  the 
extent  to  which  prices  have  risen  since  1896,  which,  I  be- 
lieve, was  the  year  in  which  the  present  rise  in  prices  set 
in.  The  rise  since  that  year  has  been  general  in  Europe 
as  well  as  here.  The  cause,  whatever  it  is,  is  world-wide. 
It  cannot  therefore  be  said  to  be  the  tariff  in  this  country. 
Moreover,  as  the  tariff  did  not  produce  these  high  prices 
in  former  years,  there  seems  to  be  no  reason  to  lay  them 

228 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

to  the  tariff  now.  The  protective  tariff  is  undoubtedly  re- 
sponsible for  the  raising  of  prices.  But  there  are  other 
causes.  May  I  also  suggest  that  it  would  be  an  interesting 
study  to  find  out  whether  prices  have  risen  most  on  pro- 
tected or  unprotected  articles  since  1896. 

THE  TRUSTS  AND  PRICES 

We  must  therefore  look  to  other  causes  for  present 
high  prices.  Some  lay  them  to  what  we  call  the  trusts — a 
word  which  I  wish  we  could  get  rid  of,  for  it  is  very  vague, 
and  very  few  seem  to  know  just  what  it  means.  A  trust 
means  a  combination  into  one  partnership  or  under  one 
management,  as  a  business  unit,  of  all,  or  of  a  predominant 
number,  of  the  corporations  engaged  in  any  particular 
manufacture.  The  first  combinations  of  this  kind  were 
called  trusts,  because  they  were  formed  under  trust  agree- 
ments, there  then  being  no  statute  to  enable  them  to  form. 
The  first  we  know  of  were  the  sugar  trust  and  the  oil 
trust.  All  of  the  16  sugar  refinery  corporations  combined 
under  an  agreement  by  which  trustees  were  appointed  to 
run  them  all  as  a  business  unit,  instead  of  their  being  run 
separately  and  in  competition  as  theretofore.  Under  the 
agreement  the  stock  holders  in  the  refinery  corporations 
surrendered  their  stock  to  these  trustees,  who  issued  them 
trust  certificates  therefor  instead.  The  Standard  Oil  trust 
was  formed  in  exactly  the  same  way.  The  then  existing  49 
separate  Standard  Oil  corporations  which  were  dispersed 
throughout  the  country  were  massed  into  one  business  unit 
by  the  very  same  kind  of  a  trust  agreement  as  that  of  the 
sugar  trust.  But  in  this  State  our  highest  court  finally 
decided  that  the  sugar  trust  was  illegal  and  had  to  disband. 
That  was  in  1892,  I  think.  It  based  its  decision  on  a  very 
simple  ground.  It  held  that  corporations  could  not  be- 
come co-partners  with  each  other,  or  unite  in  any  way 
together  for  business  purposes,  but  that  each  had  to  do 
business  separately.  It  decided  that  only  individuals  could 
become  co-partners.  We  have  nothing  to  fear  from  co- 

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MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

partnerships  of  individuals,  because  individuals  die,  and 
co-partnerships  of  individuals  therefore  last  only  a  short 
time  as  a  rule.  But  corporations  do  not  die.  Their  life  is 
perpetual,  as  a  rule.  The  Court  pointed  out  that  the  com- 
mon law  of  the  land  did  not  allow  them  to  become  co- 
partners or  unite  together  for  business  purposes ;  that  they 
are  mere  artificial  creations  of  statute,  and  that  as  no 
statute  allowed  them  to  unite  together,  they  could  not  do 
so.  At  about  the  same  time  the  highest  court  in  the  State 
of  Ohio  made  the  very  same  decision  with  regard  to  the 
Standard  Oil  trust.  Both  of  these  trusts  were  in  that  way 
broken  up.  But  straightway  the  State  of  New  Jersey 
passed  a  statute  enabling  corporations  to  unite  and  become 
a  business  unit,  just  as  the  sugar  trust  and  the  oil  trust 
were.  The  device  of  that  statute  is  very  simple.  It 
allowed  corporations  to  be  created  to  own  the  stock  of  any 
number  of  other  corporations.  We  have  become  used  to 
calling  such  a  corporation  a  holding  company.  It  owns 
and  holds  the  stock  of  other  corporations.  Both  the  sugar 
corporations  and  the  standard  oil  corporations  availed 
themselves  of  this  statute.  A  sugar  corporation  was 
formed  in  New  Jersey  and  the  stocks  of  all  these  sugar 
refining  companies,  hitherto  for  a  time  held  by  trustees, 
as  I  have  stated  were  transferred  to  it,  in  return  for  which 
it  issued  its  stock  to  the  stockholders,  who  thus  surrendered 
their  stock.  In  the  very  same  way  a  new  Standard  Oil 
Company  was  formed  under  this  statute  in  New  Jersey,  to 
which  was  turned  over  all  the  stock  of  the  said  Standard 
Oil  companies.  And  in  this  way  all  of  the  Standard  Oil 
companies  were  again  massed  as  a  business  unit,  and  all 
of  the  sugar  corporations  were  massed  as  a  business  unit. 
The  courts  had  declared  them  to  be  illegal  as  a  combination 
under  the  said  trust  agreements,  as  I  have  stated,  and  then 
the  Legislature  of  the  State  of  New  Jersey  stepped  in  and 
passed  a  law  which  enabled  them  to  legalize  and  perpetu- 
ate themselves  as  a  combination  or  business  unit  by  means 
of  a  holding  company.  And  so  they  continue  to  this  day. 
And  then  followed  the  formation  of  many  other  trusts  in 

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MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

the  same  way.  Some  other  States  passed  a  law  similar  to 
that  of  New  Jersey.  But  four-fifths  of  the  trusts  of  this 
country  are  organized  and  exist  under  this  New  Jersey 
statute.  You  already  perceive  what  I  am  coming  at, 
namely,  how  easy  it  is  to  get  rid  of  the  trusts  if  we  want  to. 
It  is  only  necessary  to  repeal  that  New  Jersey  statute, 
and  the  similar  statutes  which  were  passed  in  some  of  the 
other  States.  The  outcry  against  these  trusts  seems  to  be 
quite  as  loud  over  in  New  Jersey  as  anywhere  else  in  the 
country.  That  being  so,  why  is  it  that  that  New  Jersey 
statute  has  not  been  repealed  before  this?  Why  is  it  that 
no  one  in  office  or  out  of  office  over  in  New  Jersey  has 
asked  the  New  Jersey  Legislature  to  repeal  it  ?  No  Gov- 
ernor has  sent  a  message  to  the  Legislature  of  any  State 
which  has  this  statute  calling  for  its  repeal  so  far  as  I 
have  heard.  From  which  some  people  might  deduce  that 
the  cry  against  the  trusts  is  wholly  insincere.  Since  they 
can  be  abolished  so  easily,  do  you  not  think  that  they  ought 
to  be,  or  else  that  those  that  fail  to  even  try  to  repeal  them 
should  stop  crying  out  against  them  at  the  top  of  their 
voices  ?  We  must  not  lay.  ourselves  open  to  the  charge  of 
being  mere  demagogues.  If  the  people  want  the  trusts 
broken  up  or  prevented  they  need  only  to  elect  Governors 
and  legislators  who  will  carry  out  their  will. 

The  question  to  what  extent  trusts  are  responsible  for 
present  high  prices  should  be  carefully  considered.  No 
party,  no  statesman,  no  sensible  man,  should  follow  mere 
clamor,  or  try  to  advantage  by  it.  I  have  not  been  able  to 
find  any  trustworthy  literature  in  which  the  question  has 
been  carefully  considered.  Monopolies  no  doubt  tend  to 
raise  prices,  and  the  trusts,  which  are  monopolies,  no 
doubt,  therefore,  tend  to  raise  prices.  It  were  much  better 
if  we  used  this  hard  word  monopoly  instead  of  this  soft 
and  rather  obscure  word  trust,  and  then  people  would 
understand  us.  It  might  also  be  well  to  examine  whether 
present  prices  are  highest  on  trust  articles  or  other  articles. 
That  does  not  seem  to  have  been  carefully  examined  into, 
either. 

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MAYOR    GAYNQR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

ECONOMIC  LAWS  GOVERN  PRICES 
But  in  a  study  of  this  subject  it  is  necessary  to  note 
that  the  notion  which  some  have  that  trusts  can  run  prices 
up  or  down  as  they  see  fit,  and  to  the  extent  they  see  fit,  is 
fallacious.  A  manufacturer  has  to  buy  the  raw  material 
which  he  manufactures  into  an  article  which  he  sells.  If 
it  were  possible  for  a  manufacturer,  having  a  monopoly,  to 
run  the  price  he  pays  for  the  raw  material  down  as  low 
as  he  likes,  and  the  price  at  which  he  sells  the  finished 
product  up  as  high  as  he  likes,  he  would  of  course  have  the 
best  of  us  entirely  and  be  able  to  make  any  profit  he  saw  fit. 
But  he  can  do  neither  of  these  things.  There  are  economic 
laws  which  prevent  it;  and  you  know  that  economic  laws 
are  as  regular  as  the  laws  of  the  seasons,  or  the  revolutions 
of  the  earth,  if  you  let  them  have  free  play.  There  is  an 
economic  point  below  which  the  manufacturer,  monopolist 
though  he  may  be,  cannot  go  in  buying  the  raw  material 
without  injuring  himself.  The  producer  of  the  raw  mate- 
rial has  to  receive  enough  for  it  to  pay  the  cost  of  produc- 
tion and  also  make  a  profit  to  enable  him  to  support  him- 
self. As  soon  as  the  selling  price  goes  below  that  he 
ceases  to  grow  or  produce  the  article;  he  cannot  or  will 
not  continue  to  do  it  at  a  loss  or  without  a  profit.  In  that 
way  the  production  of  that  article  diminishes,  and  to  such 
an  extent  that  the  manufacturer  has  to  raise  his  price  in 
order  to  stimulate  its  production,  so  that  he  can  get  enough 
of  it  for  his  manufacture.  You  therefore  see  there  is  an 
economic  point  below  which  he  cannot  force  down  the  price 
of  raw  material  without  injuring  himself.  And  in  the 
same  way  there  is  an  economic  point  above  which  he  can- 
not raise  his  sale  price  of  the  finished  product  without  hurt- 
ing himself.  If  he  puts  the  price  up  too  high  the  con- 
sumption of  it  will  fall  off.  Some  will  buy  one-third  less, 
some  one-half  less,  and  some  will  do  without  it  entirely. 
In  that  way  the  manufacturer  is  obliged  to  lower  his  sale 
price  so  as  to  sell  his  finished  product  and  prevent  a  loss. 
But  there  is  a  zone  between  these  two  outlying  prices,  that 
for  the  raw  material  and  that  for  the  finished  product,  in 

232 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

which  monopolies  may  cause  the  price  to  fluctuate.  How 
wide  that  zone  is  I  cannot  now  stop  to  closely  define.  I 
imagine  it  is  somewhat  wider  than  my  hand,  however.  But 
all  I  wanted  to  point  out  is  that  the  trusts  or  monopolies 
are  controlled  by  certain  economic  laws  which  prevent 
them  from  doing  absolutely  as  they  see  fit  with  prices. 
These  laws  keep  them  within  a  restricted  zone  at  least. 
But  within  that  zone  they  can  do  much  extortion. 

LARGE  GOLD  PRODUCTION  CAUSES  HIGH  PRICES 

Looking  further  for  the  cause  of  present  high  prices, 
I  am  not  able  to  doubt  that  the  principal  cause  is  the  great 
and  ever  increasing  output  of  gold  since  1883.  The  output 
in  1883  was  only  $95,000,000  in  round  numbers.  Ever 
since  it  has  increased  by  leaps  and  bounds,  until  its  pro- 
duction in  1909  reached  the  enormous  sum  of  $454,000,000 
in  round  numbers.  The  exact  statistics  for  the  last  two 
years  are  not  at  hand,  but  it  is  known  that  they  will  show 
a  still  growing  increase.  In  fine,  the  gross  output  of  gold 
since  1883  is  over  $7,000,000,000  (seven  billions  of  dol- 
lars). The  world  has  had  other  periods  of  great  produc- 
tion of  the  money  metals,  but  never  anything  so  great  and 
continuous  as  this. 

And  every  such  period  has  been  one  of  high  and  ad- 
vancing prices  and  prosperity.  High  and  advancing  prices 
do  not  mean  hard  times,  but  good  times,  if  the  cause  be  a 
natural  one.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  hard  times  are 
marked  by  low  and  falling  prices.  That  is  the  history  of 
commerce  and  the  world.  No  one  but  a  gambler  can  con- 
tinue to  do  business  on  a  falling  market.  If  you  have  to 
sell  to-morrow  at  a  price  lower  than  you  pay  to-day,  it  is 
only  a  question  of  time  when  you  shall  have  to  quit.  His- 
tory affords  examples  of  the  effect  of  a  large  production 
of  money  metal  on  business  and  prices.  It  has  always 
brought  high  prices  and  prosperity.  To  run  prices  up  arti- 
ficially by  combinations,  monopolies,  unscientific  laws 
which  thwart  or  fetter  commerce,  or  the  like,  is  an  evil. 
But  if  they  go  up  from  natural  causes  they  are  not  an  evil. 

233 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

They  are  normal  and  natural,  and  the  normal  and  natural 
are  good  in  this  world.  The  influx  of  the  money  metals 
into  Europe  caused  by  their  first  discovery  on  this  conti- 
nent revived  commerce,  raised  prices  and  produced  a  long 
period  of  prosperity.  In  the  period  of  20  years  from  1789 
to  1809  prices  doubled  on  account  of  the  production  of  the 
money  metals,  business  revived  and  thrived,  and  prosperity 
was  on  every  hand.  The  same  result  was  produced  by  the 
great  output  of  gold  from  the  mines  of  California  and 
Australia,  beginning  with  1849.  There  are  men  still  living 
who  remember  it.  You  may  ask  why  rising  prices  did  not 
set  in  right  after  1883,  when  the  present  period  of  large 
output  of  gold  set  in,  instead  of  not  showing  themselves 
until  about  1896,  if  the  output  of  gold  is  their  cause.  The 
answer  is,  first,  that  rising  prices  do  not  set  in  at  once  or 
concurrently  with  the  increase  in  gold  output,  but  not  until 
some  years  after  such  increase  sets  in,  and  a  large  stock 
of  gold  has  accumulated  therefrom;  and,  second,  because 
silver  was  demonetized  throughout  most  of  the  world; 
that  is,  put  out  of  use  as  money  during  the  period  from 
1883  to  1896,  metal  money  being  thereby  largely  reduced. 
But  that  reduction  was  finally  more  than  made  up  by  the 
production  of  gold  and  in  due  order  prices  began  to  rise 
because  of  the  increase  in  money  metal,  although  such 
metal  had  been  reduced  to  gold  only. 

The  value  of  any  given  product  depends  upon  its  quan- 
tity. If  potatoes  or  corn  are  short  or  scarce,  their  price 
goes  up.  The  same  is  just  as  true  of  gold.  Its  value,  like 
the  value  of  other  products,  depends  on  its  quantity  and 
the  cost  of  its  production.  Hence,  the  greater  the  output 
of  gold  and  the  cheaper  the  cost  of  its  production,  the 
less  its  value  grows  in  relation  to  other  products.  The 
gold  in  the  dollar  grows  of  less  value  in  relation  to  the 
value  of  other  commodities,  and  its  exchangeable  value  or 
purchasing  power  therefore  grows  less.  It  buys  less  corn 
or  potatoes  because  it  is  worth  less.  In  other  words  you 
have  to  give  more  money  than  formerly  to  buy  the  same 
thing  or  amount  thereof.  It  takes  more  gold  to  purchase 

234 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

a  given  amount  of  wheat,  or  potatoes,  or  wool  because 
gold  by  reason  of  its  plenty  or  over  plenty  has  grown  less 
valuable.  In  place  of  saying  prices  are  higher  we  could 
express  the  same  idea  with  as  much,  or  even  more,  ac- 
curacy, by  saying  money  is  lower,  and  that  means  gold 
money,  for  gold  is  now  the  sole  equation  of  all  moneys  and 
all  values. 

The  time  may  come  when  the  present  great  output  of 
gold  will  have  reached  its  highest  point,  although  some 
say  not.  They  say  that  the  sources  of  gold,  including  the 
waters  of  the  ocean,  are  so  great  that  it  is  more  likely  that 
the  time  will  come  when  gold  will  be  so  plentiful  and 
therefore  so  cheap  that  it  will  have  to  be  done  away  with  as 
money.  But  if  instead  the  time  comes  when  its  production 
decreases  and  falls  off,  lower  and  lower,  year  after  year, 
then  after  some  years,  or  a  few  years,  the  contraction  of 
gold  will  begin  to  have  its  natural  effect,  and  prices  will 
begin  to  fall,  and  continue  to  fall  year  after  year.  Then 
everybody  will  be  complaining  of  low  and  falling  prices, 
the  same  as  some  are  now  complaining  of  high  and  rising 
prices.  Will  not  that  period  of  low  and  falling  prices  be 
hard  times?  What  say  you?  Many  people  still  alive  have 
gone  through  such  a  period,  and  know  the  hard  times 
brought  by  low  and  falling  prices.  Let  none  of  us  there- 
fore be  so  certain  that  high  prices  are  an  evil.  Every  one 
wants  a  high  price  for  what  he  has  to  sell.  But  he  natur- 
ally wants  to  pay  low  prices  for  the  things  he  has  to  buy 
to  live.  He  cannot  make  economic  laws  work  that  way. 
There  must  necessarily  be  a  general  level  of  prices,  de- 
pendent on  supply  and  demand  of  products,  including 
gold. 

What  Would  Jefferson  Say 

(Speech  at  the  Jefferson  Day  Banquet,  April  13,  1912.) 

Gentlemen  of  the  National  Democratic  Club :  '  What 
would  Jefferson  say?"  is  the  toast  you  give  me.  Yes, 

235 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

what  would  Jefferson  say?  He  was  a  progressive  man, 
but  prudent  and  careful.  He  picked  his  steps.  He  did 
nothing  headlong.  But  he  was  conscious  that  the  world 
moves,  and  he  tried  to  move  with  it.  He  was  a  radical,  if 
you  will,  but  not  the  kind  of  radical  who  wants  to  pull 
everything  up  by  the  roots,  or  every  pillar  down,  before 
he  has  something  better  to  plant  or  put  in  its  stead.  He 
was  neither  demagogue,  nor  humbug,  nor  self-seeker.  He 
wanted  to  do  good  to  his  fellow  men,  and  knew  that  good 
in  this  world  was  growth,  not  stagnation.  He  knew  that 
all  good  growth,  physical,  mental  or  moral,  was  gradual 
and  often  slow  growth.  How  gradually  the  tree  grows 
and  matures,  and  the  blade  of  wheat,  and  this  faody  of 
ours,  and  how  long  and  patiently  the  Almighty  sat  brood- 
ing over  this  world  of  ours  before  it  was  fit.  And  in  the 
same  way  how  gradually  things  mental  and  moral  grow 
and  mature.  He  knew  that  the  universal  law  in  all  tilings 
was  either  growth  or  decay.  He  only  smiled  at  the  stupid 
conservatism  which  proclaims  that  everything  is  right  just 
as  it  is,  and  has  held  up  its  hands  and  cried  out  in  all 
ages,  "  Don't  disturb  the  existing  order  of  things."  He 
knew  that  the  existing  order  of  things  is  often  a  bad,  and 
sometimes  the  worst  possible  order  of  things.  The  exist- 
ing order  of  things  in  this  country  even  within  the  memory 
of  many  still  living  was  that  one  human  being  might  own 
another.  He  was  a  progressive,  but  felt  his  way,  and 
blazed  his  way,  all  the  time  that  we  might  follow. 

OBSTRUCTIVE  COURT  DECISIONS 

Yes,  what  would  Jefferson  say  of  things  to-day? 

There  is  a  provision  in  all  of  our  constitutions,  national 
and  state,  that  no  one  shall  be  deprived  of  life,  liberty  or 
property  without  due  process  of  law,  or  except  by  the  law 
of  the  land,  as  it  is  sometimes  expressed.  This  safeguard 
is  not  new  with  us.  We  derived  it  from  England.  It  is 
expressed  in  Magna  Charta.  Nor  is  it  peculiar  to  English- 
speaking  countries.  It  is  common  in  one  form  or  another 
to  every  civilized  government.  No  one  ever  thought  of 

236 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

giving  it  anything  but  its  plain  meaning  until  in  recent 
years,  since  1870,  in  this  country.  Then  some  court  at- 
tributed an  indirect  meaning  to  these  words  liberty  and 
property.  The  phrase  to  deprive  one  of  his  liberty 
had  always  been  understood  to  mean  to  interfere  with  the 
liberty  of  the  person,  to  put  one  under  physical  restraint 
by  some  form  of  interference,  arrest  or  imprisonment. 
And  to  deprive  one  of  his  property  had  a  similar  plain 
meaning.  No  one  in  England  or  in  any  other  place  except 
here  has  ever  thought  of  their  having  any  other  meaning. 
But  since  1870  in  this  country  courts  have  been  interpret- 
ing these  words  of  the  Constitution  in  their  widest  sense. 
And  this  constitutional  exegesis  has  developed  so  rapidly 
that  necessary  social  and  economic  progress  is  being 
blocked  by  court  decisions.  What  would  Jefferson  say 
to  it?  We  know  what  he  would  say.  He  opposed  all 
forced  constitutional  interpretations  by  the  courts  while  he 
was  living,  and  said  that  if  allowed  to  run  their  course  the 
Constitution  and  our  form  of  government  would  be  sapped 
and  mined  by  the  courts  in  their  natural  tendency  to  ag- 
grandize themselves  with  power  over  the  legislative  and 
executive  branches  of  government. 

TENEMENT  HOUSE  TOBACCO  CASE 

Let  me  give  examples  of  the  extremes  to  which  these 
decisions  have  gone.  In  this  State  we  passed  a  law  that 
tobacco  should  not  be  manufactured  in  the  living  rooms 
of  tenement  houses.  The  enlightened  sentiment  of  the 
people  of  the  State  was  that  this  was  a  humane  health  and 
comfort  measure.  It  was  thought  that  children  should 
not  be  born  and  brought  up  in  the  fumes  and  odors  of  to- 
bacco. But  our  Court  of  Appeals  would  not  have  it.  The 
statute  took  away  from  the  tenant  his  "  liberty  "  to  work 
at  what  he  liked  in  his  tenement,  and  therefore  violated  the 
said  constitutional  provision,  said  the  Court.  In  the  same 
way  the  Court  said  it  deprived  him  of  his  property, 
namely,  his  leasehold,  to  the  extent  that  it  deprived  him 
of  one  use  of  it. 

237 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

UNDERGROUND  BAKE  OVENS  CASE 

Afterwards  our  Legislature  passed  a  statute  regulat- 
ing the  sanitary  condition  of  our  underground  bake  ovens. 
They  are  hot  and  unhealthy  places  to  work  in,  and  the 
bread  made  in  them  may  easily  be  unsanitary.  The  work 
in  them  is  principally  during  the  night.  The  statute  fixed 
ten  hours  in  twenty-four  as  the  maximum  hours  of  work. 
The  United  States  Supreme  Court  declared  this  uncon- 
stitutional and  void  for  depriving  journeymen  bakers  of 
the  "  liberty  "  of  working  all  night,  if  they  choose,  in  hot 
underground  bake  ovens. 

WOMEN  NIGHT  WORK  CASE 

Next  our  Legislature  passed  an  act  that  women  should 
not  be  employed  in  factories  between  9  o'clock  at  night  and 
6  o'clock  in  the  morning.  Enlightened  public  sentiment 
was  that  the  health  of  our  women  and  of  their  offspring 
would  be  conserved  by  this  law.  But  our  Court  of  Ap- 
peals declared  that  it  deprived  women  of  their  "  liberty  " 
to  work  all  night,  or  as  long  as  they  liked  in  factories.  To 
such  a  use  indeed  did  they  stretch  this  sacred  word  liberty. 

EMPLOYERS'  LIABILITY  CASE 

Last  year  our  Court  of  Appeals  declared  unconstitu- 
tional and  void  the  Employers'  Liability  Act  passed  by 
our  Legislature  the  year  before.  It  deprived  the  employer 
of  his  property  without  due  process  of  law,  said  the  Court. 
Thirty-two  different  governments  of  the  world,  including 
England,  have  such  laws,  and  have  had  them  for  many 
years.  Even  Russia  has  a  model  one.  Prussia  had  one 
as  early  as  1847.  Nowhere  in  the  world  except  here  did 
any  one  ever  suggest  that  such  a  law  takes  the  employer's 
property  without  due  process  of  law.  Nor  do  we  see  how 
it  does.  The  damages  for  injuries  and  manglings  and 
deaths  of  the  workers  from  explosives,  machinery,  and  so 
on,  which  the  employer  would  pay  would  simply  enter  into 
the  cost  of  production,  the  same  as  the  cost  and  repair  ex- 

238 


MAYOR  GAYNOITS  LETTERS  AND  SPEECHES 

pense  of  machinery,  and  be  included  in  the  price  we  would 
pay  for  the  finished  product.  How  is  that  taking  the 
property  of  the  employer  at  all?  And  yet  this  statute 
which  did  away  with  the  semi-barbarous  rules  of  the  com- 
mon law  that  the  worker  has  to  take  all  the  natural  or  in- 
herent risks  in  his  employment,  including  that  of  negli- 
gence by  any  fellow  worker,  which  have  been  done  away 
with  even  in  England  whence  we  took  such  rules,  and  pro- 
vided for  a  just  system  of  compensation  for  death  and  in- 
juries from  such  risks,  the  same  as  is  done  everywhere  in 
the  civilized  world  except  in  this  country,  was  struck  down 
on  the  forced  and  false  construction  of  this  constitutional 
provision. 

SUCH  DECISIONS  CAUSE  GROWTH  OF  SOCIALISM 

What  would  Jefferson  say  to  such  a  state  of  things? 
He  would  say,  "  Beware.  Unless  you  keep  pace  with  the 
social  and  economic  progress  of  humanity,  and  do  these 
things,  they  will  be  done  over  your  heads."  It  is  no  won- 
der that  we  have  a  state  of  unrest,  and  that  what  is  called 
Socialism  is  growing.  The  judges  who  are  thus  putting 
themselves  in  the  way  of  just  and  humane  laws,  called  for 
by  the  spirit  of  Christianity  and  social  progress,  say  that 
it  is  their  duty  "  to  protect  the  populace  from  themselves." 
Just  think  of  that.  When  and  where  and  how  did  we  ever 
confer  any  such  mission  as  that  upon  them?  Who  set  them 
up  to  protect  us  from  ourselves?  We  elect  Legislatures 
to  carry  out  our  will  by  laws. 

RECALL  OR  NULLIFY  SUCH  DECISIONS 

The  Legislature  which  has  just  adjourned  passed  a 
proposed  constitutional  amendment  to  nullify  or  recall  this 
Employers'  Liability  decision,  and  if  the  incoming  Legis- 
lature also  passes  it,  it  will  be  submitted  to  a  vote  of  the 
people  of  the  state  a  year  from  next  fall.  And  some  are 
crying  out  against  this  as  revolutionary.  What  do  they 
mean?  Our  constitutions  are  adopted  by  vote  of  the  peo- 
ple, and  the  people  have  the  right  to  amend  them  in  the 
same  way  when  they  see  fit.  And  that  is  what  they  have 

239 


MAYOR  GAYNOR'S  LETTERS  AND  SPEECHES 

been  doing  from  the  beginning.  And  they  have  frequently 
overruled  or  recalled  obnoxious  decisions  of  the  courts  in 
that  way.  And  why  should  they  not?  In  1905  the  people 
of  this  state  overruled  or  recalled  by  a  constitutional 
amendment  four  or  five  decisions  of  our  highest  court  de- 
claring unconstitutional  and  void  the  statutes  requiring 
payment  by  contractors  of  the  prevailing  rate  of  wages  on 
state  and  municipal  works,  and  fixing  the  maximum  hours 
for  a  day's  work.  The  other  day  a  lot  of  lawyers  put  forth 
a  statement  warning  the  community  against  changes  of 
the  constitution  by  popular  vote.  What  do  they  mean? 

FAVORITISM  IN  RAILROAD  FREIGHT  RATES 

And  what  would  Jefferson  say  about  some  other  things 
now  in  the  minds  of  many  in  this  country? 

The  railroads  are  not  private  roads  but  public  high- 
ways. That  is  the  first  law  of  their  being.  The  land  for 
them  was  taken  under  the  eminent  domain  power  of  gov- 
ernment to  take  property  for  public  use.  It  was  taken  for 
a  public  use,  namely  for  public  highways.  It  could  not  be 
taken  for  private  use.  What  would  Jefferson  say  to  fav- 
oritism in  freight  rates  to  shippers  on  these  public  high- 
ways instead  of  the  same  rate  being  exacted  of  all  alike? 
What  would  he  say  to  favorite  individuals  or  coteries  being 
charged  freight  rates  so  much  lower  than  their  business 
rivals  as  to  enable  them  to  drive  such  rivals  out  of  business 
by  under-selling  them  that  much  in  the  markets,  and  there- 
by creating  monopolies  in  themselves?  Would  he  not  say 
that  the  general  freight  agent  of  every  railroad  in  the 
country  ought  to  be  appointed  by  government  if  necessary 
to  do  away  with  such  a  crying  wrong?  Such  agent  need 
not  fix  the  rates,  but  his  duty  would  be  to  see  that  there 
was  only  one  rate  for  all  in  like  case — that  every  one  paid 
the  same  rate. 

THE  TRUST  OR  HOLDING  COMPANIES 

And  what  would  Jefferson  say  about  the  so-called 
trusts,  if  I  may  use  that  misnomer? 

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MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

In  several  states,  and  also  in  the  District  of  Columbia, 
there  are  statutes  enabling  corporations  to  be  formed  to 
own,  hold  and  vote  on  the  stock  of  other  corporations  with- 
out limit.  This  is  what  we  call  the  "  holding  company." 
It  is  the  "  trust."  The  stock  certificates  of  all  the  corpora- 
tions engaged  in  the  same  kind  of  business,  such  as  sugar 
refining,  for  example,  can  be  transferred  to  such  a  hold- 
ing company,  and  in  that  way  all  of  such  corporations  are 
brought  under  one  management  and  control,  and  made 
a  single  business  unit,  thereby  doing  away  with  all  com- 
petition and  rivalry  among  them,  and  enabling  the  holding 
company  to  raise  prices  to  the  consumer,  more  or  less. 
What  would  Jefferson  say  to  doing  away  with  competition 
among  corporations  in  the  same  line  of  business  and  in  that 
way?  I  think  he  would  say  the  holding  company  statutes 
should  never  have  been  passed,  and  ought  to  be  repealed 
by  degrees,  or  superseded  by  a  national  corporation  law 
under  which  no  such  thing  would  be  permitted.  Under 
these  holding  company  statutes,  including  the  one  for  the 
District  of  Columbia,  passed  by  the  National  Congress 
itself,  these  unions  of  corporations  engaged  in  the  same 
business  may  be  lawfully  formed.  That  is  what  these 
statutes  were  passed  for.  But  after  corporations  are  thus 
united  under  a  holding  company  the  United  States  brings 
suits  to  dissolve  them  for  being  monopolies  and  in  restraint 
of  trade.  What  would  Jefferson  say  to  such  folly  and  such 
a  game  of  cross  purposes  as  that  ?  What  would  he  say  to 
passing  statutes  to  enable  such  combinations  to  be  formed 
and  then  bring  suits  to  break  them  up?  Would  he  not 
say,  "  If  such  combinations  are  inherently  injurious  by 
destroying  competition,  and  interrupting  the  freedom  of 
trade,  why  do  you  not  repeal  the  statutes  under  which  they 
are  formed?"  These  combinations  are  our  own  artificial 
creations.  They  could  not  exist  except  for  these  statutes. 
If  we  do  not  want  them  we  have  only  to  repeal  the  laws 
permitting  them  to  be  created.  First,  business  was  done 
by  the  individual.  Next,  in  order  to  have  larger  capital 
and  business,  partnerships  of  individuals  came  into  vogue. 

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MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

Combination  could  go  no  further  than  this  without  the  aid 
of  some  legal  device.  Then  statutes  were  passed  for  the 
creation  of  corporations — mere  artificial  entities — so  that 
there  could  be  more  capital  combined  to  produce  larger 
business,  and  also  to  do  away  with  the  inconvenience  and 
breaking  up  of  business  partnerships  caused  by  the  death 
of  one  partner  after  another  and  the  distribution  of  their 
estates.  But  these  corporations  which  were  allowed  by 
statute  could  not  unite  together  as  partners  or  in  any  way 
for  business  purposes.  Each  had  to  stand  alone  and  do 
business  alone.  Next  these  holding  company  statutes  were 
passed — the  first  one  not  until  1885 — enabling  corpora- 
tions to  unite  or  be  combined  as  a  business  unit  under  a 
holding  company  in  the  way  I  have  stated.  These  are  the 
different  stages  leading  up  to  the  gigantic  unions  of  cor- 
porations which  we  now  have.  Should  there  be  statutes 
permitting  these  combinations  of  corporations  ?  Now  that 
they  have  been  permitted  for  a  full  generation  the  question 
is  more  difficult.  But  what  would  Jefferson  say  of  these 
mighty  combinations,  with  revenues  and  capital  and  lia- 
bilities even  larger  than  those  of  the  United  States  Govern- 
ment itself  ?  Would  he  say  that  they  ought  to  be  permitted 
to  exist  and  to  grow?  In  the  end  every  one  in  the  country 
will  have  ceased  to  be  an  independent  business  entity,  and 
will  be  a  mere  servant  of  one  of  these  great  concerns  if  they 
continue.  Does  that  tend  to  make  men  better  citizens,  or 
weak  and  indifferent  ones,  by  reason  of  a  feeling  of  de- 
pendence and  servitude?  What  would  Jefferson  say? 

PERIODICAL  CONSTITUTIONAL  CONVENTIONS 

What  would  Jefferson  say  to  have  the  Constitution  of 
the  United  States  amended  so  that  every  20  years  there 
would  have  to  be  a  new  constitutional  convention  to  re- 
port amendments  to  the  Constitution  to  be  submitted  to 
the  vote  of  the  people?  No  one  doubts  that  constitutions 
should  not  be  changed  in  a  hurry  or  rashly,  but  all  the 
same  as  time  goes  on,  and  conditions  change,  constitutions 
of  government  need  to  be  changed.  Lincoln  said  that  a 

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MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

constitution  should  not  outlast  a  generation.  He  did  not 
mean  that  at  the  end  of  that  time  the  whole  instrument 
should  go  by  the  board.  He  meant  that  it  would  probably 
need  to  be  amended  by  that  time.  Our  States  have  very 
generally  recognized  this  by  putting  requirements  in  their 
constitutions  that  constitutional  conventions  be  held  at 
stated  intervals.  It  is  now  very  cumbersome  and  difficult 
to  amend  the  Federal  Constitution.  Should  we  not  have 
it  amended  so  as  to  call  for  constitutional  conventions  at 
stated  periods?  Would  not  Jefferson  say  yea? 


Do  Our  Courts  Stand  in  the   Way  of  Social  and 

Economic  Justice,  and  If  So, 

By  What  Authority? 

(Address  Before  the  Yale  Forum,  at  Yale  University,  New  Haven, 
Connecticut,  May  7,  1912.) 

President  Hadley,  Governor  Baldwin,  Ladies  and 
Gentlemen:  I  had  some  misgivings  about  coming  here 
at  all  and  leaving  the  busy  life  which  surrounds  me  in  the 
city  of  New  York,  but  I  thought  I  might  possibly  say 
a  few  words  of  some  interest  to  you  older  people  and  of 
some  guidance  to  you  young  men,  and  especially  to  you 
young  men  who  are  studying  law.  The  subject  is,  "  Do 
our  courts  stand  in  the  way  of  social  and  economic  jus- 
tice— and  if  so,  by  what  authority?  "  I  suppose  we  may 
in  this  country  question  even  the  authority  of  the  courts 
if  we  see  fit.  We  have  outgrown  the  divinity  of  kings 
and  of  legislatures  and  executives,  and  I  suppose  we  have 
a  right  to  outgrow  the  divinity  of  courts  too  if  we  see  fit, 
having  at  the  same  time  due  respect  for  them.  The  sub- 
ject is  a  very  broad  one.  Perhaps  the  phrase  "  distribu- 
tive justice  "  might  express  it  more  fully.  And  when  I 
say  "  distributive  justice  "  I  do  not  mean  merely  the  jus- 
tice administered  in  the  courts,  but  distributive  justice  in 
the  widest  sense.  You  young  men  growing  up  to  the  bar, 
of  all  other  men,  should  have  this  distributive  justice  in 

243 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

mind.  That  mere  rule  of  thumb  justice  which  we  asso- 
ciate with  the  administration  of  the  law  in  the  courts  falls 
far  short  of  expressing  what  I  mean.  The  first  duty  of 
government,  the  prime  duty  of  government,  is  distributive 
justice  to  all.  That  means  justice  in  its  widest  sense,  the 
social  and  economic  sense  as  well  as  the  legal  sense.  If 
government  fails  in  that  it  fails  at  the  essential  point  and 
has  no  excuse  for  existence.  Prosperity  does  not  depend 
wholly  on  the  amount  of  the  total  product.  It  depends 
even  more  largely  upon  the  just  distribution  of  the  total 
product  among  those  who  produce  it.  I  should  define 
prosperity  to  be  the  highest  production  the  community 
is  capable  of  consistent  with  the  mental,  moral  and  phys- 
ical health  and  growth  of  its  members,  accompanied  by 
a  just  distribution  of  the  total  product  among  those  who 
produce  it.  I  do  not  mean  by  that  share  and  share  alike 
to  every  one.  I  mean  distribution  according  to  the  pro- 
ductive capacity  of  each,  whether  that  capacity  be  mental 
or  physical,  or  both.  Distributive  justice  also  means  that 
those  engaged  in  the  production  shall  be  otherwise  fairly 
dealt  with — that  they  be  not  forced  to  work  an  undue 
number  of  hours,  that  they  have  proper  machinery,  and 
of  all  things  that  they  be  paid  for  the  injuries  which  they 
receive  in  their  work  without  their  wilful  fault,  especially 
from  the  dangerous  machinery  of  our  times.  That  enters 
into  distributive  justice.  In  what  I  have  to  say  all  these 
things  enter.  If  the  courts  set  themselves  up  against  this 
distributive  justice  then  the  courts  are  not  fulfilling  their 
office. 

I  do  not  come  here  to  pass  any  undue  criticism  upon 
the  courts.  I  was  a  Judge  myself  you  know  for  sixteen 
years  and  I  have  to  be  careful  and  not  say  too  much. 
And  I  have  Judge  Baldwin  here  behind  me  too,  which 
makes  me  more  or  less  circumspect,  if  not  nervous.  Nor 
do  I  come  here  to  advocate  the  recall  of  the  judiciary.  I 
see  that  frightens  none  of  you,  however.  Down  my  way 
it  seems  to  frighten  some  people  to  mention  it.  It  doesn't 
frighten  me  a  particle.  I  am  not  here  to  advocate  it.  But 

244 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

strangely  enough  every  time  I  say  anything  on  the  subject 
on  which  I  speak  to  you  to-night  I  see  great  headlines 
the  next  day  in  that  sort  of  newspaper  which  we  have 
down  in  New  York — I  don't  know  whether  you  know 
much  about  it — I  see  great  headlines,  "  The  Mayor  ad- 
vocates the  recall  of  the  judiciary,"  when  I  have  never 
said  a  word  to  that  effect.  In  fact  I  am  not  in  favor 
of  the  recall  at  all;  I  may  as  well  relieve  your  minds 
by  saying  that  right  off.  Here  in  the  East  with  our 
short  terms  of  office — and  I  think  the  like  is  the  case 
all  over  the  country — I  do  not  see  what  need  we  have  of 
the  recall  of  officials.  Their  terms  are  up  quick  enough 
and  they  can  be  recalled  by  being  left  at  home.  I  believe 
Judge  Baldwin's  term  even  is  only  two  years  as  Governor. 
Why,  you  would  not  have  time  to  recall  him  if  you  wanted 
to.  And  then  when  you  did  you  would  find  out  you  had 
made  a  mistake.  But  this  I  have  to  say,  that  if  the  recall 
is  to  be  adopted  I  do  not  wish  to  see  the  Judges  excluded 
from  it.  Every  time  we  have  a  dinner  of  the  Judges  in 
New  York,  or  a  meeting,  they  denounce  the  recall  of  the 
Judges.  It  seems  to  be  all  right  to  them  for  everybody 
else  to  be  recalled.  At  all  events  they  say  nothing  about 
that.  And  yet  their  terms  are  for  fourteen  years,  and  if 
anybody  down  there  is  to  be  recalled,  I  say  include  the 
Judges.  This  thing  of  having  a  recall  held  over  them, 
the  Judges  say,  might  intimidate  them  so  that  they  would 
make  wrong  decisions.  But  if  it  would  intimidate  the 
Judges,  I  think  it  might  intimidate  some  of  the  rest  of  us 
too,  might  it  not?  And  we  might  do  something  that  we 
would  be  sorry  for  afterwards  and  that  the  people  would 
be  sorry  for  too.  I  did  not  run  the  danger  that  any  of 
you  would  say  that  I  am  for  the  recall  of  the  Judges,  and 
it  was  hardly  worth  while  to  speak  about  those  newspapers 
which  report  everything  by  headlines,  and  report  it  wrong 
at  that.  We  might  as  well  let  them  alone.  I  knew  of  a 
great  big  husband  once  with  a  little  bit  of  a  wife,  and  she 
used  to  beat  him  and  mistreat  him.  One  of  the  neighbors 
saw  her  at  him  one  day,  and  asked,  "  Why  do  you  submit  to 

245 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

that?  "  and  he  says,  "  Why  it  doesn't  hurt  me  and  it 
pleases  Mary  Ann."  That  would  apply  to  some  of  our 
New  York  newspapers;  but  I  dare  say  to  no  newspaper 
up  here.  That  is  why  I  am  so  free  to  talk  about  it  away 
from  home. 

Now,  to  come  closer  to  my  subject  whether  the  Judges 
stand  in  the  way  in  this  country  of  economic  and  social 
reform,  I  want  to  say  to  you  at  the  outset  that  what  I  have 
to  say  hinges  on  a  constitutional  provision.  And  that  con- 
stitutional provision,  my  young  law  school  friends,  is  the 
one  which  prescribes  that  "  no  one's  life,  liberty  or  prop- 
erty shall  be  taken  except  by  due  process  of  law,"  or,  as 
it  is  sometimes  expressed,  "  except  by  the  law  of  the  land  " 
— phrases  which  mean  the  same  thing.  Now  that  consti- 
tutional safeguard  is  in  every  one  of  the  fundamental  in- 
struments of  government  in  this  country,  national  and 
state,  which  we  call  constitutions  of  government.  It  was 
put  in  these  fundamental  instruments  at  the  beginning. 
It  was  not  in  the  national  constitution  at  its  first  adoption, 
but  certain  states  insisted,  and  it  and  others  were  put  in 
a  very  few  years  afterwards.  But  this  safeguard  of  which 
I  speak  is  not  peculiar  to  this  country.  It  can  be  traced 
back  far.  It  has  its  foundation  even  in  Magna  Charta. 
It  is  there  in  substance  as  all  the  courts  point  out.  It  runs 
through  British  constitutional  history.  Nor  is  it  peculiar 
to  English  or  American  constitutional  law  or  history.  A 
similar  safeguard  is  to  be  found  in  every  civilized  govern- 
ment in  the  world,  expressed  in  one  form  or  another.  We 
sometimes  run  away  with  the  notion  that  this  safeguard 
is  only  in  English  and  American  history.  Not  at  all. 
They  have  it  all  over  Europe,  that  no  one's  life,  liberty 
or  property  shall  be  taken  except  in  a  lawful  way,  that  is 
to  say,  by  due  process  of  law. 

But  what  I  call  your  attention  to  is  that  the  courts  in 
this  country,  beginning  in  about  1870,  began  to  give  this 
phrase  a  large  meaning.  They  have  taken  the  words 
"  liberty  "  and  "  property  "  in  this  provision  and  given 
them  an  elastic  and  enlarged  meaning  which  nobody 

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MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

dreamed  lurked  anywhere  in  this  provision.  Why,  when 
King  John  signed  Magna  Charta  at  the  demand  of  his 
Barons  and  undertook  therein  not  to  deprive  any  of  his 
subjects  of  his  "  liberty  "  except  by  the  law  of  the  land, 
they  all  meant  that  he  should  not  arrest  them  or  imprison 
them  or  restrain  them  of  their  personal  liberty  except  by 
due  process  of  law.  King  John  certainly  did  not  think 
the  word  "  liberty  "  he  was  signing  for  meant  liberty  for 
a  woman  to  work  all  night  in  a  factory,  or  anything  like 
that.  In  the  same  way  when  this  safeguard  was  adopted 
in  our  fundamental  instruments  of  government  in  this 
country,  no  one  understood  it  to  have  such  a  meaning. 
You  shall  not  deprive  a  man  of  his  liberty  and  property 
except  by  due  process  of  law.  To  deprive  him  of  his  lib- 
erty was  understood  to  mean  to  arrest  him  and  lock  him 
up  or  restrain  his  physical  liberty.  And  to  take  his  prop- 
erty meant  to  actually  take  his  property.  And  not  in 
England  or  on  the  continent  of  Europe,  or  anywhere  else 
in  the  world,  has  any  other  meaning  been  attached  to  these 
two  words,  except  in  this  country,  and  here  not  until  about 
1870.  Some  Judges  who  got  tired  of  the  ordinary  rule 
of  thumb  in  deciding  cases  began  to  see  in  this  word  "  lib- 
erty "  boundless  meanings — liberty  to  make  any  kind  of  a 
contract,  liberty  to  do  what  you  like  in  your  house,  liberty 
to  work  as  long  as  you  like.  And  in  the  word  "  property  " 
they  began  to  see  not  merely  physical  property,  but  uses 
of  property.  And  in  the  decisions  thus  made  I  respect- 
fully say  the  courts  have  often  forgotten  that  no  owner- 
ship of  property  gives  any  one  a  right  to  use  his  property 
in  any  way  which  is  inconsistent  with  the  rights,  safety  or 
comfort  of  the  community.  That  is  a  fundamental  prin- 
ciple with  regard  to  property.  It  used  to  be  an  old- 
fashioned  thing  for  people  to  say  of  their  property,  and 
even  the  railroad  companies  used  to  say  it  in  this  country 
some  years  ago,  "  Well,  do  not  we  own  it  and  cannot  we 
do  as  we  like  with  our  own?  "  I  do  not  think  a  man  with 
an  automobile  has  a  right  to  do  what  he  likes  with  it.  No 
more  has  a  man  with  a  piece  of  land,  or  any  other  prop- 

247 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

erty.  He  has  got  to  use  it  consistently  with  the  wel- 
fare of  the  whole  community,  and  the  whole  community 
has  a  right  to  deprive  him  of  the  use  of  it  to  the  extent  of 
making  him  conform  to  that  welfare. 

Now,  I  will  take  up  some  court  decisions  to  illustrate 
to  you  how  the  courts,  as  I  think,  and  as  many  think,  have 
gone  far  afield  in  the  interpretation  of  the  words  "  liberty  " 
and  "  property  "  in  this  constitutional  safeguard.  I  am 
not  saying  to  you  anything  new  with  me.  I  said  this  when 
I  was  a  Judge.  I  put  it  in  the  form  of  an  address  some 
years  ago,  at  a  time  when  it  made  people  look  somewhat 
askance  at  a  man  to  say  as  much.  But,  I  tell  you,  people 
do  not  look  so  much  askance  nowadays  as  they  used  to 
about  a  good  many  things.  And  I  have  had  a  very  dis- 
tinguished recruit  to  my  side  within  a  year,  who  is  saying 
something  about  this  throughout  the  country. 

The  first  case  I  shall  call  your  attention  to  is  known 
in  my  own  state  as  the  tenement  house  tobacco  case.  There 
are  similar  decisions  in  other  states,  but  I  shall  cite  from 
my  own  state  mostly  in  order  not  to  be  offensive.  I  will 
start  with  the  tenement  house  tobacco  case.  You  know 
what  a  condensed  population  we  have  in  a  part  of  the  City 
of  New  York.  Well,  benevolent  men  and  women  in  going 
around  there  found  in  the  little  rooms  in  these  crowded 
tenements  certain  things  being  manufactured  that  were 
not  wholesome.  They  found  tobacco  being  manufactured 
into  its  various  products  in  the  living  rooms  of  these  poor 
tenements.  Benevolent  people  who  help  the  poor  saw  it 
and  they  saw  the  evils  of  it.  They  saw  little  children  born 
into  this  world  and  brought  up  in  bedrooms  and  kitchens 
in  the  fumes  and  odors  of  tobacco.  They  also  saw  longer 
hours  of  work  than  would  be  the  case  if  workmen  left  their 
work  at  the  shop  and  went  home.  So  they  went  to  the 
legislature  and  got  a  law  passed  forbidding  the  manu- 
facture of  tobacco  in  the  living  rooms  of  these  tenements. 
And  the  Governor  signed  it.  Well,  they  thought  they  had 
accomplished  something  important.  And  a  great  many 
thought  so,  and  a  great  many  more  to-day  think  so  than 

248 


MAYOR  GAYNOITS  LETTERS  AND  SPEECHES 

thought  so  then.  But  it  got  into  the  courts  and  finally  the 
highest  court  in  my  state,  the  Court  of  Appeals,  decided 
the  case.  And  it  said  that  that  statute  was  unconstitu- 
tional and  void  because  it  deprived  the  leaseholder,  the 
tenant,  of  his  "  liberty  "  and  his  "  property  "  within  the 
meaning  of  this  constitutional  provision.  It  is  one  of  the 
pioneer  cases,  and  the  Judge  who  wrote  the  opinion  waxed 
eloquent  over  this  thing.  It  could  not  be  allowed,  the 
depriving  of  a  man  in  his  tenement  of  the  "  liberty  "  to 
bring  his  children  up  in  the  fumes  of  tobacco.  That  lib- 
erty was  too  valuable  to  be  taken  away  from  him.  I  have 
had  the  case  brought  in  from  the  library  (taking  up  a 
copy  of  the  New  York  State  Reports* ) .  The  Judge  said 
in  these  very  words :  "  It  arbitrarily  deprives  him  of  his 
property  and  of  some  portion  of  his  personal  liberty." 
Some  "  portion,"  mind  you.  I  wonder  he  did  not  say 
"  potion  "  in  place  of  portion.  The  idea  of  dealing  out 
liberty  by  portions  may  do  for  judicial  English,  but  I  do 
not  advise  you  young  law  students  to  adopt  it.  If  there 
is  anybody  on  this  earth  that  the  earth  has  least  use  for  it 
is  the  little  rule  of  thumb  lawyer,  especially  if  he  goes 
about  with  a  green  bag  in  his  hand  as  I  have  seen  them  do 
in  Boston.  That  kind  of  a  little  lawyer  generally  grows 
up  and  after  a  few  years  has  a  face  of  parchment,  and  he 
does  everything  just  by  rule  of  thumb.  My  young  friends 
in  the  Law  School  here,  broaden  out.  Be  lawyers  and  be 
judges,  but  not  little  rule  of  thumb  lawyers  and  judges, 
I  almost  say  to  you  be  men  first  and  lawyers  second.  Yes, 
after  an  eloquent  disquisition  this  Judge  says  this  statute 
arbitrarily  deprives  this  tenement  leaseholder  of  his  "prop- 
erty "  and  of  some  portion  of  his  "  liberty,"  within  the 
meaning  of  this  constitutional  prohibition  against  depriv- 
ing anybody  of  his  liberty  or  property  without  due  process 
of  law.  The  court  said  that  it  deprived  him  of  liberty  to 
use  his  tenement  as  he  saw  fit.  The  word  "  liberty  "  in 
this  constitutional  provision,  the  court  said,  meant  liberty 


*Matter  of  Jacobs,  98  N.  Y.  Reports,  98. 

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MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

to  manufacture  tobacco  in  your  tenement  under  your  chil- 
dren's noses  if  you  wanted  to.  The  sum  and  substance 
of  it  is  that  the  court  said  that  this  constitutional  guaranty 
gave  the  tenant  liberty  to  do  that  in  his  tenement,  and 
therefore  the  legislature  could  not  take  it  away  from  him. 
Well,  if  the  premises  were  correct  the  conclusion  would 
be  correct.  And  then  they  said  that  it  deprived  him  of 
his  property  within  the  meaning  of  the  word  "  property  " 
in  this  constitutional  provision  in  this,  that  it  deprived  him 
of  one  use  of  his  property,  namely,  the  use  to  manufac- 
ture tobacco — as  though  he  could  not  go  elsewhere  and 
get  another  room  to  manufacture  tobacco  in.  But  that 
was  the  reasoning.  I  suppose  I  ought  not  to  poke  fun 
over  it,  because  it  is  a  serious  matter,  but  it  is  not  always 
easy  to  be  serious  when  you  do  not  see  the  thing  in  the 
same  light  as  other  solemn  people  see  it.  And  so  down 
went  this  health  statute  in  a  heap,  declared  void  because 
it  deprived  the  tenement  house  lessee  of  the  liberty  to  use 
his  tenement  for  anything  he  saw  fit,  and  deprived  him  of 
his  property  in  as  much  as  it  deprived  him  of  one  use  of 
his  one-year  leasehold,  or  whatever  it  was.  That  was  the 
decision.  It  was  all  reasoned  out  very  fine.  But  do  the 
words  "  liberty  "  and  "  property  "  in  the  constitutional 
provision  mean  any  such  thing?  Not  in  England  up  to 
this  hour,  where  this  constitutional  phrase  originated,  has 
anybody  ever  dreamed  of  it  meaning  any  such  thing.  No- 
where in  the  civilized  world  except  in  this  country  has 
anybody  said  it  meant  any  such  thing.  Why,  the  Barons 
never  dreamed  at  Runnymede  that  they  were  extorting 
from  King  John  by  Magna  Charta  liberty  to  manufac- 
ture tobacco  in  a  tenement  bedroom. 

The  next  case  in  order  was  the  bake-oven  case  in  my 
state.  A  bake-oven,  you  know,  is  underground.  And  if 
any  of  you  ever  were  in  a  bake-oven  I  do  not  need  to  say 
another  word  about  bake-ovens.  It  is  the  hottest  and 
most  uncomfortable  place  on  the  face  of  the  earth.  It  is 
a  hard  place  to  work  in.  It  is  hot  and  unhealthy,  and  no 
one  can  stand  it  without  injury  to  health.  So  in  the  same 

250 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

way  in  the  state  of  New  York  we  had  a  law  passed  pre- 
scribing sanitary  regulations  for  the  bakeries.  Much  med- 
ical opinion  was  got  together  about  it,  and  statistics  were 
looked  up  to  see  how  long  bakers  lived.  And  bread  can  be 
very  easily  made  unsanitary  by  an  unsanitary  baker.  The 
rheum  of  his  eyes  and  the  sweat  of  his  body  may  not  be 
very  pleasant  to  have  in  your  bread  the  next  morning, 
though  you  know  nothing  about  it.  And  disease  may  be 
disseminated  in  that  way.  These  bake-ovens  are  excep- 
tional. They  are  underground  and  as  hot  as  Tophet,  if 
I  may  use  such  an  expression  here.  It  reminds  me  of  the 
saying  of  General  Phil.  Sheridan,  that  if  he  owned  both 
Texas  and  Tophet,  he  would  lease  out  Texas  and  live  in 
Tophet.  Texas  was  a  hard  place  in  those  days,  and  these 
bake-ovens  are  much  harder.  The  law  was  passed  pre- 
scribing regulations  for  them.  One  of  the  regulations  was 
that  10  hours  a  night  was  all  that  a  baker  should  work  in 
these  places.  To  do  credit  to  our  state  courts,  they  said 
it  was  a  reasonable  law — that  it  was  a  fair  health  law — 
and  they  approved  of  it.  But  it  got  up  to  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States  in  some  way  and  that  court, 
by  a  vote  of  5  to  4,  as  is  usual  in  important  matters,  de- 
cided that  the  act  was  unconstitutional  and  void  because 
it  deprived  the  journeyman  bakers  of  the  "  liberty " 
of  working  all  night  in  bake-ovens  if  they  wanted  to.  That 
is  exactly  the  decision.  They  said  it  took  away  their  lib- 
erty. There  were  no  journeymen  bakers  that  I  know  of 
clamoring  for  any  such  liberty.  Judge  Peckham,  who 
wrote  the  opinion  on  which  the  case  was  decided,  said 
(reading  from  United  States  Reports*)  :  "  The  question 
involved  is  whether  the  statute  is  a  fair,  reasonable  and 
appropriate  exercise  of  the  police  power  of  the  state,  or 
is  it  an,  unreasonable,  unnecessary  and  arbitrary  inter- 
ference with  the  right  of  the  individual  to  his  personal  lib- 
erty." That  was  exactly  the  language  of  the  Judge. 
Judge  Holmes,  who  wrote  one  of  the  dissenting  opinions, 


*Lochner  Case,  198  U.  S.  Reports,  45. 

251 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

said  it  looked  to  him  as  though  it  was  only  an  installment 
of  what  we  might  look  for  hereafter.  And  he  intimated 
that  the  legislature  had  the  right,  if  it  saw  fit,  to  prescribe 
10  hours  a  day  for  everybody,  in  office  and  out  of  office. 
Judge  Peckham  said  for  the  court  the  question  was 
whether  it  was  a  fair  and  reasonable  exercise  of  legislative 
power.  And  he  said,  no,  it  was  not.  But  who  is  the  judge 
of  that,  pray?  Who  made  him  the  judge  of  it,  pray? 
Who  made  any  court  in  this  land  the  judge  of  that 
against  your  will?  If  you,  by  which  I  mean  the  in- 
telligent people  of  any  state,  conclude  that  it  is  a  fair 
and  reasonable  thing  to  limit  the  hours  of  work  in  these 
bake-ovens  to  10  hours  in  one  night,  if  enlightened  public 
sentiment  comes  to  that  conclusion,  I  want  to  know  where 
any  court  in  this  land  was  given  the  power  to  set  that 
enlightened  public  sentiment  at  naught  and  overthrow  it. 
To  say  that  this  is  a  government  of  the  people  is  trite,  and 
I  am  sorry  to  say  sometimes  laughed  at  nowadays.  They 
spell  it  in  New  York  in  some  of  the  newspapers  p-e-e-p-u-l 
in  order  to  make  ridicule  of  it.  They  think  that  when  you 
say  the  people  you  mean  every  man  who  has  a  patch  on 
his  trousers  and  no  visible  means  of  support.  I  think  you 
and  I  do  not  mean  that  when  we  say  the  people.  I  say 
the  people  up  here  at  Yale  University  and  the  enlightened 
people  of  the  country.  Everybody  knows  more  than  any- 
body. It  was  always  so,  and  I  think  the  enlightened 
opinion  of  the  people  on  a  question  like  that  may  be  more 
safely  followed  than  that  of  a  few  judges,  and  should  be. 
Nowhere  in  the  civilized  world  did  any  bench  of  judges 
ever  arrogate  to  themselves  the  right  to  decide  over  the 
heads  of  the  legislature  and  the  community  whether  such 
a  legislative  act  is  fair  and  reasonable  until  it  was  done 
in  this  country.  Fair  and  reasonable?  Don't  we  know 
whether  it  is  fair  and  reasonable  as  a  health  measure  for 
the  benefit  of  society  to  prohibit  tobacco  from  being  manu- 
factured in  tenement  rooms  with  little  children  playing 
around  and  tasting  and  smelling  it  and  learning  how  to 
use  it,  and  having  their  health  injured  by  it?  And  in  the 

252 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

same  way,  do  we  know  or  do  we  not  know  whether  it  is 
fair  and  reasonable  to  prescribe  10  hours  for  night  work 
in  an  underground  bake-oven.  Some  of  you  go  down  into 
one  to-night  and  see  whether  you  would  like  to  stay  there 
any  longer  than  10  hours,  if  you  have  any  doubt  about 
what  I  am  telling  you.  That  is  one  of  the  problems  I 
have  in  New  York  now  to  keep  the  bakeries  sanitary. 
Good  bread  depends  upon  it.  Good  bread  depends  upon 
the  health  of  these  men  who  cough  and  sweat  there  while 
they  are  at  their  work. 

Now,  the  police  power,  as  it  is  called,  gives  the  Legis- 
lature power  to  pass  any  law  for  (quoting  from  a  volume) 
"  the  health,  comfort,  morals,  safety  or  general  welfare  of 
society."  That  is  the  definition  of  the  police  power.  And 
the  courts  profess  to  be  all  agreed  that  any  statute  passed 
for  the  health,  comfort,  morals,  safety  or  general  welfare 
is  a  good  and  valid  statute  notwithstanding  this  constitu- 
tional provision.  But,  say  the  courts,  we,  however,  will 
keep  the  decision  to  ourselves  of  the  question  whether  a 
given  statute  is  fairly  and  reasonably  for  the  "  health, 
comfort,  morals,  safety  or  general  welfare."  It  is  not 
enough  that  the  Legislature  and  those  who  elected  it  think 
so  and  say  so.  The  legislature  may  debate  it.  They  may 
collect  statistics  on  it.  Benevolent  people  may  work  upon 
it.  The  law  may  be  passed  unanimously  by  the  Legisla- 
ture and  signed  by  the  Governor  and  meet  the  wishes  of 
the  whole  state.  But  we,  we,  mind  you,  or  I,  if  it  happen 
to  be  one  judge,  reserve  to  ourselves,  or  to  myself — big  I 
and  little  you — the  question  whether  it  is  such  is  reason- 
able and  fair  and  necessary,  or  not.  All  I  say  is  that  we 
have  given  no  such  power  to  the  courts.  And  in  reserving 
that  question  to  themselves  how  do  they  do  it?  Why,  they 
do  just  what  I  am  telling  you.  They  go  to  this  constitu- 
tional provision,  which  we  borrowed  from  England  and 
which  is  world  wide,  and  they  take  these  two  words  "  lib- 
erty "  and  "  property,"  and  they  say  the  statute  deprives 
a  man  of  his  liberty  or  his  property  or  both  within  their 
meaning  as  used  in  such  provision — deprives  him  of  his 

253 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

liberty  to  sweat  all  night  in  a  bake-oven  and  of  his  liberty 
to  manufacture  tobacco  under  the  noses  of  his  little  chil- 
dren in  tenement  rooms,  and  that  such  statute  is  not  for 
the  health,  morals,  comfort,  safety  or  general  welfare. 
Now,  I  am  speaking  with  all  respect.  I  said  all  this  years 
ago,  and  I  was  wondering  whether  it  was  altogether  safe 
to  say  it  up  here  among  you  people  of  steady  habits  in  Con- 
necticut. But  inasmuch  as  you  students  here  come  from 
all  parts  of  the  United  States  I  thought  I  would  venture 
to  speak  about  it.  Do  not  understand  me  as  deriding  the 
courts.  Nobody  has  more  respect  for  them  than  I  have. 
We  all  respect  them.  But  never  let  any  one  get  it  out  of 
your  mind  that  the  judges  are  public  officials  just  like 
mayors  and  governors,  like  myself  and  Governor  Baldwin, 
and  open  to  public  criticism  just  as  we  are,  neither  more 
nor  less.  We  cannot  criticise  them  while  they  have  a  case 
before  them.  Ordinary  decency  requires  that  we  remain 
mute — not  like  some  newspapers  which  tell  them  how  to 
decide  it  and  do  the  whole  thing  for  them.  We  have  to 
keep  still  until  they  have  made  their  decision.  But  as  soon 
as  they  make  it  we  have  a  right  to  discuss  and  criticise  it 
if  we  want  to,  and  pick  it  to  pieces  if  we  can. 

The  next  case  in  order  in  my  own  state  is  the  factory 
women's  act.  Now  what  was  that?  The  Legislature  with 
unanimity  passed  a  law  and  the  Governor  signed  it  that 
women  should  not  be  permitted  to  work  in  the  factories  of 
the  state  between  the  hours  of  9  at  night  and  6  in  the 
morning.  Now  do  you  understand  what  I  am  saying? 
You  may  think  I  am  joking  but  I  am  not.  It  was  not 
between  6  in  the  morning  and  9  at  night.  We  all  thought 
it  was  enough  to  work  from  6  in  the  morning  until  9  at 
night  for  women  in  factories,  so  we  passed  a  law  that 
between  9  at  night  and  6  in  the  morning  they  should  quit. 
Now,  why  did  we  do  that?  Why,  we  did  it  because  they 
have  done  it  all  over  Europe  and  in  England  and  all  over 
the  civilized  world,  as  they  have  with  regard  to  other  like 
cases.  We  did  it  because  we  wanted  our  women  healthy, 
and  also  good  looking,  if  you  will  allow  me.  That  counts 

254 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

for  a  good  deal  in  this  world  with  a  woman.  But  for  a 
man  the  homelier  he  is  the  better  so  far  as  I  know,  espe- 
cially so  far  as  getting  along  with  the  women  is  concerned. 
And  the  Governor  signed  the  act.  Nobody  ever  dreamed 
of  the  law  having  anything  the  matter  with  it.  We  wanted 
healthy  children  also,  and  you  do  not  have  healthy  children 
unless  you  have  healthy  mothers.  I  have  already  read  to 
you  the  police  power  law  which  permits  any  statute  for 
the  welfare  of  the  community  or  the  health  of  the  com- 
munity or  the  morals  of  the  community  to  be  passed.  Isn't 
it  to  the  welfare  and  health  of  the  community  that  women 
bear  healthy  children,  which  they  cannot  do  unless  they 
are  healthy  themselves?  But  it  got  into  our  Court  of 
Appeals  and  they  were  indignant.  I  cannot  express  it 
any  other  way.  Read  the  opinion  of  the  court.*  There 
is  a  tone  of  indignation  in  it.  And  what  was  it?  Why, 
they  said  you  are  depriving  the  women  of  the  liberty  to 
work  all  night  if  they  want  to.  Well,  now,  we  had  not 
heard  any  woman  clamoring  for  that  liberty  in  our  state. 
But  the  Court  of  Appeals  cited  this  constitutional  pro- 
vision that  you  may  not  deprive  any  one  of  his  liberty  or 
her  liberty  without  due  process  of  law.  And  they  said 
here  is  a  statute,  with  no  process  of  law,  just  in  the  stroke 
of  a  pen  depriving  her  of  the  liberty  to  work  all  night  if 
she  sees  fit.  And  down  it  went.  This  word  liberty  was 
stretched  to  mean  that.  Of  course  when  you  get  going  in 
this  world  down  hill  the  farther  you  go  the  faster  you 
go  until  you  fall  prone.  And  sooner  or  later  the  courts 
have  to  fall  prone  with  these  cases.  And  that  statute  was 
destroyed.  Now  I  do  not  want  to  say  anything  too  strong, 
so  I  almost  have  to  appeal  to  President  Hadley  and  Judge 
Baldwin  here  present  if  it  is  not  a  reasonable  thing  to  say 
that  a  statute  like  that  should  meet  with  the  assent  of 
every  man  and  woman.  And  so  it  did  until  it  got  into  the 
Court  of  Appeals  of  the  State  of  New  York,  and  these 
venerable  gentlemen  thumbed  the  Constitution  and  found 


*  Williams  Case,  189  N.  Y.  Reports,  181. 

255 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

this  clause,  which  they  were  very  familiar  with,  that  no 
woman  should  be  deprived  of  her  liberty  without  due 
process  of  law.  And  that  is  the  fate  the  case  met.  Since 
then  a  case  came  up  in  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States  from  Oregon,  I  think,*  and  the  Supreme  Court 
was  confronted  with  this  decision  in  our  state.  But  finally 
they  rejected  it  and  held  the  statute  from  the  West  to 
be  good.  They  interpreted  this  same  constitutional  pro- 
vision in  the  United  States  Constitution.  Thus  we  have 
this  same  word  "  liberty  "  in  the  same  context  held  to  mean 
one  thing  by  the  one  court  and  another  thing  by  the  other. 
They  said  that  women  were  the  wards  of  the  nation  and 
bore  our  children,  and  that  such  a  statute  was  reasonable 
on  its  face.  But  they  still  asserted  and  kept  to  themselves 
this  power  of  deciding  whether  it  is  reasonable  or  not, 
which  I  say  is  your  right  and  not  theirs.  We  all  know 
whether  it  is  right  or  not  without  submitting  it  to  a  bench 
of  judges,  men  for  years  withdrawn  from  affairs  of  life, 
men  who  have  not  kept  note  of  the  economic  and  social 
progress  of  the  world,  men  who,  maybe,  are  years  behind 
their  times.  Most  men  do  not  advance  after  40.  What 
they  know  up  to  that  date  they  think  is  just  right  and  they 
will  stick  to  it.  But  the  forerunners  of  human  thought 
are  afoot  all  the  time,  and  they  lead  the  way  in  this  world. 
The  world  is  advancing  all  the  time,  not  going  backward. 
And  these  statutes  come  along  as  the  mere  expressions  of 
economic  advancement  and  social  advancement,  and  to 
have  them  meet  such  a  fate  on  the  theory  that  they  con- 
flict with  this  constitutional  provision,  passed  only  to  safe- 
guard the  individual  in  his  liberty  and  property,  is  dis- 
tressing. 

Now,  we  also  passed  several  statutes  in  our  state  with 
regard  to  work  done  for  the  state  or  any  municipality  by 
contractors,  that  the  rate  of  wages  paid  should  be  the  pre- 
vailing rate,  as  it  is  expressed,  and  that  10  hours  should 
be  a  dav's  work.  That  was  done  because  the  contractors 


*Muller  Case,  208  U.  S.  Reports,  412. 

256 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

on  large  works  very  often  move  into  a  community  with  an 
army  of  men  that  they  had  on  some  work  maybe  a  thousand 
miles  off,  where  labor  was  cheap.  That  law  was  passed  not 
to  have  the  community  dislocated  by  such  things  as  that, 
but  to  have  the  local  prevailing  rate  of  wages  paid.  But 
our  Court  of  Appeals  struck  these  laws  down  one  after 
the  other  as  depriving  a  man  of  his  liberty  to  work  for 
any  wages  he  saw  fit — for  90  cents,  say,  when  the  prevail- 
ing rate  was  $1.50.  But  as  I  will  show  you  later  those 
decisions  all  went  by  the  board. 

Another  decision  I  wish  to  call  your  attention  to  was 
made  a  year  ago  last  winter,  by  our  Court  of  Appeals,  the 
highest  in  the  state.*  It  was  on  the  Employers'  Liability 
act.  Now,  let  me  say  preliminary  that  32  different  gov- 
ernments of  the  world  have  an  Employers'  Liability  act, 
coupled  with  insurance,  often.  Every  civilized  country  in 
the  world  has  it  outside  of  this  country.  Prussia  had  one 
as  early  as  1847.  Russia  has  a  model  one,  and  we  some- 
times say  Russia  is  uncivilized.  Lloyd  George,  three  years 
ago,  modeled  the  English  act  after  the  Russian  one.  And 
what  a  great  statesman  they  said  Lloyd  George  was.  But 
he  simply  took  the  Russian  act  and  copied  it.  They  had 
one  in  England  already,  but  it  was  rather  old  and  out  of 
date.  But  all  over  Europe,  all  over  the  British  Colonies, 
all  over  the  world,  in  32  different  governments  or  more, 
such  a  law  exists.  The  old  common  law  rule,  as  we  call  it, 
is  that  the  workman  takes  all  the  inherent  risks  of  the 
business.  Well,  when  people  had  nothing  but  hoes  and 
shovels  and  hand-looms  and  the  like  to  work  with  there 
was  not  much  risk  to  take.  But  now  with  our  complicated 
machinery  and  our  explosives,  the  workman  takes  a  great 
deal  of  risk.  The  judges  verj^  often  say  in  a  bungling  way 
that  the  workman  "  assumes  "  the  inherent  risk  of  the 
work  and  the  place  where  he  works.  He  does  not  assume 
it  at  all.  He  is  not  given  a  chance  to  say  a  word  about 
it.  The  law  casts  it  upon  him,  the  common  law  rule  which 


*Ives  Case,  201  N.  Y.  Reports,  271. 

257 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

we  took  from  England  but  which  England  discarded  years 
ago.  He  has  also  no  redress  if  injured  by  the  negligence 
of  a  fellow  worker.  He  is  told  to  sue  his  fellow  worker. 
What  a  consolation  that  is.  Well,  now,  in  England  that 
has  all  been  done  away  with.  It  is  done  away  with  all 
over  Europe,  everywhere  except  here.  We  have  stuck  to 
it  in  my  state  as  though  we  worshipped  it.  But  in  this 
statute  passed  three  years  ago  in  my  state  it  was  enacted 
that  the  common  law  rules  that  the  workman  took  all  the 
inherent  risks  of  the  business,  machinery,  blasting  and 
everything,  and  of  the  negligence  of  his  fellow  workers, 
was  abrogated.  And  then  the  statute  enacted  that  unless 
lie  was  hurt  by  his  own  wilful  negligence  he  should  be 
paid  by  the  employer.  All  the  enlightened  employers  in 
my  state  wanted  the  law.  All  the  workmen  wanted  the 
law,  and  all  people  who  have  kept  pace  with  the  economic 
progress  of  the  world  wanted  the  law.  And  it  was  passed. 
The  employers  had  reason  to  want  the  law.  Now  there 
are  certain  insurance  companies  that  insure  them  against 
accidents  to  their  workmen.  One  employer  pays  $1,500 
a  year  to  the  company  to  insure  him  against  all  these  acci- 
dents, and  another  $10,000,  and  so  on,  according  to  the 
size  of  their  business.  A  few  years  ago  I  was  talking  to 
an  educated  man  on  that  subject,  and  I  said  there  ought 
to  be  a  fund  made  up  by  government  by  taxation  of  manu- 
facturers to  pay  those  people  who  lose  their  legs  and  arms 
and  the  dependents  of  those  who  lose  their  lives  by  dan- 
gerous machinery.  And  he  said  I  was  "  talking  socialism." 
I  said  to  him  that  some  people  are  much  frightened  about 
socialism  but  that  socialism  like  that  did  not  frighten  me 
any.  It  seems  to  me  that  if  everybody  was  put  on  the 
level  of  socialism,  and  everybody  was  paid  a  wage  by  the 
state,  everybody  would  be  doing  as  little  as  he  could.  The 
total  product  would  grow  less  all  the  time  and  there  would 
be  more  poverty  than  the  world  ever  saw.  That  is  the  way 
I  look  at  socialism,  and  yet  I  may  be  wrong.  '  But,"  he 
says,  "  you  are  talking  socialism."  I  asked  him  if  he  was 
not  insured  against  accidents  to  his  workmen.  He  said 

258 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

he  was,  and  paid  $1,500  a  year.  I  told  him  that  the  in- 
surance company  employed  an  army  of  lawyers,  an  army 
of  investigators,  an  army  of  process  servers,  and  in  that 
way  ate  up  the  fund  made  up  by  the  premiums  paid  in, 
leaving  enough  however  to  pay  a  fair  dividend  to  the  stock- 
holders. And  that  if  the  state  taxed  all  employers  to  pay 
for  these  accidents  without  any  law  suit  at  all  they  might 
be  paying  less  of  a  tax  than  they  are  now  paying  to  the 
insurance  companies  for  it.  :<  Well,  I  never  thought  of 
that,"  he  said.  I  said,  "  That  is  socialism,  is  it?  You 
ought  to  begin  to  think  about  it."  So,  as  I  said,  in  my 
state  we  were  willing  to  have  this  law  and  it  was  passed 
and  the  Governor  signed  it.  There  was  no  party  question 
about  it.  The  legislature  was  practically  unanimous.  But 
the  statute  was  challenged  in  the  courts,  and  this  old  friend 
of  ours,  the  constitutional  guaranty  that  your  property 
shall  not  be  taken  without  due  process  of  law,  was  brought 
up  again,  and  the  courts  said  that  to  make  the  employers 
in  the  factories  pay  for  these  injuries  of  workmen  was  to 
take  that  much  money  from  them  without  due  process  of 
law  and  therefore  was  taking  their  property  without  due 
process  of  law,  and  therefore  violative  of  this  constitutional 
guaranty.  And  the  statute  was  declared  void.  Well,  now, 
let  us  see.  Does  it  take  any  one's  property  at  all?  A 
manufacturer  has  to  pay  for  the  machinery  and  when  it 
is  broken  he  has  to  repair  it.  And  all  that  goes  into  the 
cost  of  his  product.  And  if  he  has  to  pay  people  who 
have  their  hands  crushed  and  who  are  otherwise  hurt,  will 
not  that  enter  into  the  cost  of  his  product  also?  Doesn't 
he  simply  add  that,  a  mere  decimal  too  small  to  be  noticed, 
to  the  selling  price  of  his  article  ?  And  therefore  it  is  you 
and  I  and  the  whole  community  in  buying  that  article  who 
pay  this  fund  that  goes  to  pay  these  people,  and  not  the 
manufacturer  at  all.  That  is  an  economic  proposition, 
and  I  see  no  answer  to  it.  Nor  do  I  see  any  reason  why 
we  should  not  make  the  expense  of  such  injuries  a  part  of 
the  cost  of  manufacture,  the  same  as  the  cost  and  repair  of 
the  machinery.  Do  you  see  any  reason  why  one  should 

259 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

not  be  on  a  par  with  the  other?  They  have  done  it  all 
over  the  world,  and  why  should  we  not  do  it  here?  Why 
also  should  we  not  go  further  if  necessary  as  they  do,  and 
impose  a  tax  on  the  manufacturers  to  create  a  fund  to  be 
put  in  trust  in  the  hands  of  the  state  to  pay  these  ex- 
penses? We  simply  add  one  other  cost  to  manufacture. 
I  referred  a  moment  ago  to  the  Prussian  law  of  1847.  It 
was  a  tax  on  wages  to  create  such  a  fund,  and  it  was  such 
a  decimal  that  the  manufacturer,  sooner  than  be  bothered 
with  the  bookkeeping  of  it,  as  a  rule  paid  it  himself,  and 
the  law  soon  after  was  amended  to  cast  it  on  the  manu- 
facturer. The  tax  is  not  so  large.  People  look  at  these 
things  too  seriously.  When  you  come  to  spread  a  tax 
over  all  the  manufacturers  of  the  state  you  know  a  small 
tax  will  raise  a  large  sum  and  will  pay  all  these  maimed 
and  injured  people  and  go  into  the  cost  of  the  manu- 
factured product  and  all  who  buy  manufactured  articles 
pay  the  money  that  goes  to  pay  for  these  injuries,  and 
hardly  feel  it.  We  have  got  to  pay  for  them  in  some 
way,  either  in  the  poor-house  or  in  some  more  respectable 
way,  and  I  think  we  had  better  choose  the  respectable 
way.  But  this  Employers'  Liability  act  in  my  state  we 
cannot  have.  I  read  this  morning  that  the  United  States 
Senate  had  passed  a  national  one,  and  I  was  sorry  to  see 
that  even  15  Senators  voted  against  it. 

Now  what  is  the  remedy  for  these  things?  I  have 
kept  my  remarks  to  my  own  state  and  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States.  My  state  has  been  a  woeful 
offender,  and  other  states  quite  as  bad.  What  are  you 
going  to  do?  You  cannot  put  tobacco  out  of  your  tene- 
ments. You  cannot  prescribe  hours  of  work  at  night  in 
the  bake-ovens.  You  cannot  forbid  people  to  employ 
women  between  nine  at  night  and  six  in  the  morning  in 
factories.  You  cannot  have  an  insurance  law  or  an  Em- 
ployers' Liability  law  to  pay  people  who  are  injured  at 
work.  What  are  you  going  to  do?  I  referred  a  moment 
ago  to  the  decisions  of  our  Court  of  Appeals  declaring 
those  acts  void  which  said  the  prevailing  rate  of  wages 

260 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

should  be  paid  on  state  and  municipal  work  by  contractors, 
and  that  10  hours  a  day  should  constitute  a  day's  work. 
How  did  we  get  rid  of  those  decisions,  do  you  suppose? 
In  1905  we  passed  a  constitutional  amendment  nullifying 
them,  or  to  use  a  word  now  grown  familiar  and  quite  ex- 
pressive, we  "  recalled "  them  all.*  Some  people  are 
talking  about  recalling  decisions  as  though  they  had  dis- 
covered something  new.  Why,  we  have  been  doing  it 
from  the  foundation  of  our  government.  When  the 
courts  decide  things  in  the  way  we  do  not  want,  the  legis- 
lature passes  an  act  making  it  as  the  people  want  it  over 
the  heads  of  the  courts.  But  where  it  is  a  constitutional 
question  the  legislature  cannot  do  it.  We  have  to  do  it 
by  constitutional  amendment.  Some  are  clamoring 
against  submitting  these  questions  to  the  vote  of  the  peo- 
ple— some  say  populace,  so  little  respect  have  they  for 
the  people.  We  talk  about  the  intelligent  people  that 
come  out  of  Yale  and  our  colleges  and  our  splendid  sys- 
tem of  schools — that  is  what  we  mean  when  we  talk  about 
the  intelligence  of  the  people,  and  I  tell  you  the  intelli- 
gence of  the  people  governs  in  the  end.  And  the  intelli- 
gent people  control  those  who  are  not  intelligent.  I  once 
made  the  statement  before  an  audience  that  there  was  at 
least  one  highly  intelligent  man  in  each  block  in  the  City 
of  New  York,  and  that  in  the  end.  as  he  thought,  that 
block  would  think.  His  mind  would  come  pretty  near 
ruling  that  block.  And  a  man  said  to  me,  "  Never  say 
that  again.  If  you  ever  want  to  run  for  office  you  will 
only  have  that  one  man  in  the  block  to  vote  for  you." 
And  I  said  to  him,  "  My  dear  sir,  I  can  say  that  with  im- 
punity because  every  man  in  the  audience  will  think  he  is 
that  one  man  in  the  block."  That  is  what  we  did  with 
these  five  decisions.  Now  the  legislature  of  my  state  this 
year,  before  adjourning,  passed  a  joint  resolution  to  sub- 
mit to  a  vote  of  the  people  the  question  whether  we  should 
not  overrule  this  Employers'  Liability  decision,  too.  It  is 


*N.  Y.  State  Constitution,  Art.  12,  Sec.  1. 

261 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

nothing  new  at  all,  this  recalling  of  decisions.  Those 
that  think  it  is  new  are  only  discovering  an  old  thing 
which  they  think  is  new.  Some  people  are  clamoring 
against  submitting  it  to  the  vote  of  the  people.  Why  the 
constitutions  of  our  states  are  adopted  by  the  people,  are 
they  not?  And  the  people  can  alter  them  by  their  vote, 
can  they  not  ?  I  see  no  difference  between  adopting  the  con- 
stitution by  a  vote  of  the  people  and  the  people  amending 
it  when  they  see  fit,  and  as  they  see  fit,  by  their  vote.  That 
is  the  way  we  do  it  in  fact  throughout  all  our  states.  But 
it  is  not  done  that  way  under  the  federal  constitution,  but 
will  be,  I  assume,  some  time.  Our  legislature  passed  this 
year  a  joint  resolution  to  submit  that  decision  to  a  vote  of 
the  people,  and  our  system  is  that  two  succeeding  legis- 
latures have  to  pass  the  resolution  and  then  the  following 
fall  the  people  vote  on  it  at  the  election.  So  that  you  see 
in  eighteen  months  we  can  bring  about  a  constitutional 
amendment  in  my  state.  And  that  is  the  way  generally 
throughout  the  states  of  the  nation.  And  a  year  from 
this  fall  we  will  submit  to  the  people  of  my  state  the 
question  whether  we  will  recall  this  decision  striking  down 
the  Employers'  Liability  act.  And  you  people  in  Con- 
necticut will  see  us  recall  it.  We  intend  to  go  along  a 
little. 

The  national  constitution  is  not  so  easily  changed.  We 
have  been  six  years  now  at  work  in  the  process  of  chang- 
ing it  so  as  to  overrule  the  income  tax  decisions,  and  it 
looks  as  though  we  would  be  six  years  more  at  it.  There 
is  no  provision  in  the  federal  constitution  for  calling  con- 
stitutional conventions.  In  my  state  and  in  many,  if  not 
most  states,  there  is  a  provision  in  the  constitution  that 
there  must  be  a  constitutional  convention  every  twelve 
years.  We  have  to  have  it  whether  we  want  it  or  not, 
and  that  gives  the  people  from  all  over  the  state  a  chance 
to  come  up  and  suggest  constitutional  amendments.  Lin- 
coln said  that  a  constitution  should  not  outlast  a  genera- 
tion. He  did  not  mean  by  that  that  a  constitution  should 
go  by  the  board  as  a  whole  at  the  end  of  every  generation. 

262 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

He  only  meant  that  at  the  end  of  a  generation  it  would 
need  changes.  There  is  no  use  talking  of  these  constitu- 
tions being  sacred.  Why,  they  are  sacred  in  a  certain 
sense,  but  they  are  not  sacred  enough  to  stop  the  progress 
of  humanity  and  of  the  world.  They  are  not  sacred 
enough  to  stop  social  and  economic  progress  by  any 
means,  and  every  generation  that  comes  along  is  con- 
fronted by  new  conditions — that  is  what  Lincoln  meant 
when  he  said  that  a  constitution  should  not  outlast  a  gene- 
ration. The  English  constitution,  which  the  judges  some- 
times say  is  unwritten,  has  always  been  changing.  I  do 
not  see  how  it  is  unwritten,  however.  I  would  like  to 
know  what  part  of  it  is  unwritten.  The  habeas  corpus 
act,  the  bill  of  rights,  the  petition  of  right,  the  act  of  set- 
tlement, and  so  on — all  of  it  that  I  know  anything  about 
is  written.  But  it  has  always  been  changing,  gradually, 
very  gradually,  from  generation  to  generation.  Macaulay 
has  this  fine  expression  with  regard  to  it:  "  Although  it 
has  been  constantly  changing  there  never  was  an  instant 
of  time  in  which  the  major  portion  of  it  was  not  old." 
That  expresses  how  we  must  deal  with  constitutions.  The 
changes  must  be  gradual,  mature  and  careful.  So  that 
we  may  be  able  to  say  of  our  constitution  as  Macaulay 
said  of  the  British  constitution,  "  constantly  changing,  but 
there  never  was  an  instant  of  time  in  which  the  major  part 
of  it  was  not  old."  So  I  would  advocate  putting  in  the 
national  constitution  an  amendment  that  we  have  a  con- 
stitutional convention  by  congressional  districts  every  fif- 
teen or  twenty  years,  and  give  the  people  of  this  country  a 
chance  to  ask  for  changes.  When  the  courts  decide  things  to 
be  unconstitutional  we  are  helpless  unless  we  can  get  to- 
gether and  change  our  constitution  by  vote,  and  that  ought 
to  be  brought  around  as  easily  as  possible.  Not  as  easily 
as  possible  in  the  rash  sense,  but  as  easily  as  possible  with 
mature  thought,  with  care,  and  with  a  reasonable  lapse  of 
time  before  voting — time  for  full  discussion  and  thought. 
Now,  I  have  probably  said  enough  to  lodge  in  your 
minds  what  I  wanted  to  communicate  to  you  on  this  sub- 

263 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

ject.  I  have  omitted  much,  but  I  hope  I  have  said  enough 
to  start  you  men  here,  especially  in  the  law  school,  to 
thinking  about  these  things.  Don't  go  out  of  college  as 
mere  iconoclasts  wanting  to  break  everything,  like  some 
calling  themselves  radicals,  who  go  around  pulling  up 
everything  by  the  roots  before  they  have  something  else 
to  plant  in  its  place.  I  do  not  want  you  to  be  that  kind 
of  men,  but  careful  men,  and  mature  men,  and  broad  men. 
Do  not  go  into  the  honorable  profession  of  the  law  in  a 
narrow  spirit.  Do  not  sit  down  and  worship  a  decision 
simply  because  judges  made  it.  An  unjust  decision  can- 
not last  in  the  nature  of  things.  Courts  sometimes  think 
when  they  make  a  decision  they  have  settled  a  thing  for- 
ever. It  is  not  so.  If  you  had  lived  in  the  time  of  the 
Dred  Scott  decision  would  you  have  sat  down  and  wor- 
shipped it?  The  Dred  Scott  decision  which  took  a  negro 
boy  and  remanded  him  back  into  human  slavery  in  the 
state  from  which  he  came  only  hastened  the  coming  libera- 
tion of  the  slave.  It  was  open  to  discussion  and  to  criti- 
cism like  all  official  acts.  And  so  you  young  men  com- 
ing out  of  here  to  the  bar,  do  not  be  the  little  rule  of 
thumb  lawyer  that  I  spoke  about  at  the  beginning,  but 
let  your  minds  grow  and  expand.  And  look  at  the  law 
as  a  growth,  a  growth  to  keep  pace  with  economic  growth 
and  social  growth,  and  then  you  shall  have  social  justice 
and  economic  justice,  or,  to  use  a  phrase  that  I  like  bet- 
ter, you  will  have,  for  you  will  bring  it  about  in  your  gene- 
ration, distributive  justice  to  all. 

Distributive  Justice 

(Remarks  at  the  Dinner  of  the  Trust  Company  Section  of 
the  American  Bankers'  Association,  Waldorf-Astoria  Hotel,  May 
9,  1912.) 

Mr.  Chairman  and  Gentlemen :  My  part  according  to 
the  programme  is  to  welcome  you  in  behalf  of  the  City  of 
New  York.  If  you  are  satisfied  with  that  much  I  will  be 
perfectly  willing  to  sit  down.  I  most  heartily  welcome 

264 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

you.  You  are  here  from  36  states  of  the  nation,  as  I 
understand  it.  Thirty-six — why  not  from  all?  And  I 
welcome  you  all.  I  feel  in  perfectly  good  company;  I 
may  as  well  say  that  too.  I  am  right  here  with  what  some 
of  our  statesmen  call  the  octopus.  Or  if  I  may  use  the 
plural,  in  its  homeliest  way,  about  700  octopuses,  I  under- 
stand, are  in  this  room.  Altogether  you  make  one  great 
big  octopus.  Well,  I  am  not  a  bit  afraid  of  you,  and  I 
feel  entirely  comfortable,  because  we  have  a  good  many 
of  the  same  kind,  as  Mr.  Morgan  knows,  right  here  in  the 
city  of  New  York.  I  confess  that  I  have  found  you  just 
about  like  the  rest  of  mankind.  You  have  a  bad  name  in 
some  quarters,  but  I  have  found  that  your  heart  and  your 
head  are  about  the  same  as  the  rest  of  us.  I  do  not  want 
to  say  anything  bad  of  you,  to  tell  the  truth — I  might 
want  to  borrow  a  thousand  dollars  tomorrow,  so  I  will  be 
careful.  If  you  are  to  be  hung,  drawn  and  quartered  here 
in  the  city  of  New  York,  I  think  I  will  turn  that  part  of 
the  job  over  to  Judge  Baldwin  of  Connecticut,  at  my  right 
here.  Perhaps  he  has  some  blue  law  up  in  Connecticut  that 
he  has  brought  along  in  his  vest  pocket  that  will  very  fairly 
dispose  of  you. 

But  if  your  reputation  is  somewhat  shady  in  some  quar- 
ters, I  have  to  remind  you  that  it  is  nothing  new.  That  is 
something  of  very  long  standing.  I  hate  to  quote  any 
classical  author  when  these  gentlemen  of  the  press  are 
around,  because  it  astonishes  the  whole  journalistic  world. 
In  the  most  harmless  way  I  once  quoted  one  sentence  from 
Epictetus,  and  I  never  heard  the  last  of  it  up  to  this  time. 
First  they  seemed  to  think  I  quoted  from  some  bad  book. 
But  by  degrees  they  learned  that  I  simply  quoted  from  a 
harmless  philosopher  who  had  been  or  was  a  slave  when 
he  dictated  his  philosophy. 

Your  reputation  was  bad  even  before  the  time  of  the 
elder  Cato.  ( To  the  reporters :  Cato,  Cato,  I  said.  Did 
you  ever  hear  of  him  before?)  And  I  will  let  you  know 
what  he  said  about  you,  or  what  he  says  that  other  people 
said  about  you.  It  is  in  De  Re  Rustica — you  college  grad- 

265 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

uates  have  all  read  that  in  the  original,  his  treatise  on  farm- 
ing. It  is  a  sort  of  a  Horace  Greeley  book,  "  What  I  know 
about  Farming,"  by  the  elder  Cato.  And  he  was  telling 
how  honorable  it  was  to  make  money  out  of  farming.  And 
then  he  said  it  is  also  at  times  worth  while  to  gain  wealth 
by  commerce,  were  it  not  so  perilous,  or  by  usury  were  it 
equally  honorable.  And  usury  in  those  days  meant  any 
kind  of  interest.  It  was  not  a  hard  word  as  it  is  now.  And 
then  he  says  "  our  ancestors,  however,  held  and  fixed  by 
law  that  a  thief  should  be  condemned  to  restore  double, 
but  a  usurer  quadruple."  And  then  he  continues,  "  We 
thus  see  how  much  worse  they  thought  it  for  a  citizen  to  be 
a  money  lender  than  a  thief."  Now  none  of  the  modern 
statesmen  have  said  anything  as  bad  as  that  about  you  have 
they,  from  Oregon  to  Connecticut?  I  have  not  heard  of 
anybody  saying  anything  quite  so  bad.  They  call  you  an 
octopus,  and  they  laugh  the  next  day  when  they  want  to 
borrow  a  thousand  dollars  and  say  they  did  not  mean  it 
at  all.  And  you  laugh  also  and  lend  them  the  money, 
sometimes  to  get  rid  of  them,  and  without  security.  You 
are  glad  to  do  it.  But  you  have  your  useful  place  in  the 
world  like  everybody  else.  Society  is  very  complex.  If 
we  were  all  bankers  I  don't  know  what  would  become  of  us. 
And  if  we  had  no  bankers  I  don't  know  what  would  be- 
come of  us  or  of  you  either.  You  have  your  useful  place 
in  the  world,  and  your  honorable  place.  I  don't  look  upon 
you  with  any  alarm  whatever.  On  the  contrary  I  look 
upon  you  as  performing  not  only  useful  but  an  absolutely 
necessary  office  in  every  civilized  community  in  the  world. 
Of  course  we  don't  want  too  many  of  you.  The  monied 
interests  are  always  dreaded.  Those  who  charge  interest 
for  money  are  always  hated.  But  it  is  nothing  new.  I 
wish  some  of  you  would  read  the  history  of  the  House  of 
Fuger  beginning  in  the  fifteenth  century  in  Germany. 
You  will  find  it  in  the  recent  volumes,  "  The  Foundations 
of  the  Nineteenth  Century."  Some  chap  came  there  into 
Dusseldorf,  a  weaver,  and  he  saved  his  wages,  and  he  be- 
gan to  loan  it  around  here  and  there,  and  finally  he  became 

266 


a  banker.  And  during  all  the  rest  of  that  century,  and 
all  the  sixteenth  century,  for  that  matter,  the  house  of 
Fuger  financed  pretty  much  everything  that  there  was  in 
Germany,  even  the  operations  of  the  church  in  the  collec- 
tion of  the  indulgence  money,  as  you  read  in  history.  They 
heard  as  much  about  them  as  we  hear  about  the  house  of 
Morgan,  if  I  may  take  that  name  in  vain  again  (turning 
toward  J.  Pierpont  Morgan).  But  they  lived  there  in 
their  day  and  their  time,  and  passed  away.  They  had  their 
enemies,  and  they  had  their  friends,  and  I  suppose  on  the 
whole  probably  they  served  a  useful  purpose.  At  all 
events  they  tried  to.  And  that  is  what  you  are  trying  to 
do. 

I  asked  the  distinguished  gentlemen  on  my  right  and 
on  my  left  what  the  laws  of  usury  were  generally  through- 
out the  country.  I  understand,  in  fact  I  know,  that  in 
most  of  New  England  they  have  had  the  good  sense  to  do 
away  with  the  usury  law.  Scathed  and  blasted  by  the  logic 
and  reasoning  of  Bentham  and  Mill,  and  such  minds,  the 
usury  laws  disappeared  from  England  and  from  the  con- 
tinent of  Europe  so  far  as  I  know,  but  we  still  harbor  them 
to  a  large  extent  in  this  country.  My  own  state  here  has 
the  most  illogical,  nonsensical  and,  I  might  say,  wretched 
usury  law  on  the  face  of  the  earth.  We  pass  a  statute  pre- 
scribing a  rate  for  money  and  then  we  make  penalties  for 
anybody  who  agrees  to  take  a  higher  rate.  And  one  of  the 
penalties  is  that  the  whole  loan  is  forfeited.  Well,  that  is 
done  to  protect  the  borrower  they  say.  Did  you  ever  hear 
such  nonsense  in  your  life?  To  protect  the  borrower. 
Why,  if  the  borrower  has  no  credit  he  cannot  borrow,  and 
if  his  credit  is  poor  he  has  got  to  pay  the  rate  for  such 
credit.  And  inasmuch  as  the  whole  loan  may  be  forfeited 
if  he  chooses  to  go  into  court  and  resist  payment,  why  he 
has  to  be  charged  an  additional  sum  in  the  rate  for  that 
risk,  hasn't  he?  That  is  as  plain  as  your  five  fingers.  And 
yet  when  some  attempts  in  this  state  have  been  made  to 
repeal  that  nonsensical  law  you  would  think  that  the  pillars 
of  the  temple  were  about  to  be  pulled  down.  They  say 

267 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

it  is  to  protect  the  poor.  Oh,  dear  me !  Protect  the  poor ! 
It  only  adds  to  the  rate  the  poor  have  to  pay  for  money, 
the  risk  that  I  am  telling  you.  Every  risk  in  the  loan 
has  to  be  considered  in  fixing  the  interest  which  has  to  be 
paid.  Now  many  of  our  states  have  done  away  with  that, 
following  England  and  Europe.  The  borrower  they  say 
is  the  servant  of  the  lender.  Yes,  to  some  extent  that  is 
true.  Then  they  reason  that  the  borrower  and  the  lender 
are  not  on  equal  terms,  and  therefore  they  will  enact  a  law 
that  the  lender  shall  only  charge  6  per  cent,  because  he  is 
dominant  over  the  borrower.  But  you  are  not  obliged  to 
lend  it  at  all,  and  if  you  are  taking  a  big  risk  you  charge 
for  it  in  some  way  or  another.  Somebody  at  my  right  or 
my  left  told  me  there  is  such  a  thing  as  getting  a  commis- 
sion on  the  outside;  so  that  what  they  call  the  poor  man, 
that  they  do  love  to  protect  so  much,  and  in  their  bung- 
ling do  not  protect  at  all,  very  often  has  to  pay  a  very  much 
higher  rate  than  he  would  have  to  pay  if  there  were  no 
usury  law.  The  law  says  in  this  state,  for  instance,  6  per 
cent.  But  dear  me,  half  the  time  money  is  being  loaned 
for  3  per  cent,  and  4  per  cent.  Bonds  and  mortgages  are 
placed  here  now  at  4  per  cent,  and  4%  per  cent. — why  not 
6  per  cent.?  Why,  because  money  is  not  worth  6  per 
cent,  and  you  cannot  get  any  more  than  4%  per  cent,  for 
it.  That  is  the  economic  law.  You  might  as  well  pass  a 
law  to  change  the  seasons.  As  Macaulay  says:  "  In  spite 
of  the  Legislature  the  snow  will  fall  when  the  sun  is  in 
Capricorn,  and  the  flowers  will  bloom  when  he  is  in 
Cancer."  So  that  all  these  laws  are  futile.  Absolutely 
futile.  But  the  trouble  is  the  danger  of  saying  so.  I  have 
the  unfortunate  habit  of  saying  anything  I  like.  So  to- 
morrow, no  doubt,  somebody  will  say  that  I  want  to  abol- 
ish the  usury  laws  for  the  benefit  of  the  bankers.  Not  one 
bit  of  it.  It  would  not  benefit  you  a  particle.  It  would 
reduce  the  rate  of  interest,  and  you  know  it,  every  one  of 
you  who  has  thought  of  it — especially  any  of  you  who  have 
read  the  literature  on  the  subject.  They  know  it  in  Massa- 
chusetts, and  they  know  it  in  the  western  states,  and  in 

268 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

some  of  the  southern  states.  But  I  am  sorry  to  say,  here 
in  my  own  state  with  a  plain  economic  thing  like  that,  we 
have  an  economic  falsehood  on  the  statute  books  for  gen- 
erations, and  no  legislature  to  change  it.  But  I  suppose 
it  will  come  along.  Everything  happens,  you  know,  if  you 
live  long  enough.  You  don't  know  what  may  happen  to 
you.  This  sort  of  law  serves  its  time  and  then  passes  away. 

The  great  struggle  and  the  effort  of  everybody  is  really 
to  do  the  best  for  all.  The  great  effort  of  society,  as  long 
as  we  have  known  anything  about  organized  society,  has 
been  to  bring  about  what  I  may  define  in  two  words,  dis- 
tributive justice.  That  is  to  say,  justice  to  all,  according 
to  their  merits  and  according  to  their  productive  capacity. 
And  that  is  the  great  object  of  government,  and  the  great 
aim  of  every  honest  man,  whether  he  be  a  banker  or  not. 
Do  not  be  mere  little  bankers,  thinking  about  your 
own  little  clique,  and  your  own  little  selves.  If  you 
do  you  will  be  like  little  parchment  lawyers  that  we 
see  going  around  with  their  little  rule  of  thumb  way  of 
doing  things  and  knowing  nothing  else  on  earth. 
Broaden  out,  you  intelligent  men,  and  help  to  bring 
about  distributive  justice  to  all — to  those  above  on 
the  ladder  and  those  below  on  the  ladder,  all  the  way 
down.  And  don't  be  so  mean  and  pitiable  that  you  cannot 
put  your  eye  first  at  the  very  foot  of  the  ladder.  I  could 
make  a  wager  that  four-fifths  of  you  started  at  the  foot  of 
the  ladder  yourselves.  So  look  down  at  those  at  the  foot, 
and  remember  that  they  are  entitled  to  distributive  justice 
too.  We  read  the  statistics  of  your  banks,  how  much  your 
deposits  are,  and  how  much  your  loans  are,  and  we  read 
the  statistics  showing  the  total  product  of  the  industry  of 
the  country.  The  figures  are  enormous.  And  then  we  all 
say:  'What  a  prosperous  country.  The  total  product 
of  industry  last  year  was  so  many  billions,  beating  every 
nation  on  the  earth,"  and  then  we  boast  and  say:  "How 
prosperous!" 

My  friends,  remember  distributive  justice  when  you 
have  that  in  your  minds.     Prosperity  does  not  depend 

269 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

wholly  on  the  total  product  of  a  country.  It  depends  even 
more  on  a  just  distribution  of  that  product  among  all  who 
contributed  by  their  work  to  produce  it,  whether  that  work 
was  mental  or  physical  or  both.  You  may  have  the 
mightiest  production,  but  until  you  have  a  just  distribu- 
tion among  all  who  contributed  to  it,  you  will  not  have 
distributive  justice  and  you  will  not  have  prosperity,  a  con- 
tented society.  So  look  to  it  that  your  own  calling  does 
not  dwarf  your  minds.  An  animal  lives  in  a  little  circle, 
as  I  know  every  time  I  look  at  my  dog,  or  my  horse  or  my 
cow  or  my  pig,  or  even  my  goose,  and  within  that  horizon 
that  animal  knows  more  than  we  do.  And  you  may  know 
all  within  your  circle.  But  broaden  out.  Do  not  let  your 
little  circle  be  to  you  the  horizon  of  humanity  or  of  man- 
kind. If  you  do,  you  are  not  fulfilling  your  office  in  the 
world.  You  intelligent  men,  with  great  power  in  your 
hands,  prosperity  is  the  highest  production  that  a  com- 
munity is  capable  of  consistent  with  the  moral,  mental  and 
physical  health  of  the  members  of  that  community,  accom- 
panied by  a  just  division  of  the  total  product  among  those 
who  produced  it.  I  do  not  say  share  and  share  alike.  No, 
but  according  to  the  productive  capacity  of  each.  Emula- 
tion and  ambition  are  the  mother  of  all  good  things  in 
the  world.  What  would  the  world  be  without  them?  So 
that  the  rewards  of  industry  go  to  each  and  all  according 
to  the  various  productive  capacities.  And  the  loafers  and 
criminals  who  produce  nothing,  Judge  Baldwin,  I  suppose 
you  and  I,  all  of  us,  have  to  support  them  and  bear  with 
them  the  best  we  can.  That  seems  to  be  the  order  of  the 
world.  So  I  will  simply  urge  you  to  take  that  broad  view 
of  things. 

I  started  out  by  facetiously  saying  that  maybe  you 
have  a  bad  name  in  the  community.  I  want  to  say  some- 
thing on  the  other  side  of  it.  Wherever  you  go  through- 
out this  country,  especially  outside  of  the  large  cities, 
where  people  know  each  other,  in  the  small  villages  and 
cities,  the  banker  is  always  recognized  as  an  honest  man 
and  a  useful  citizen  in  the  community.  And  he  does  much 

270 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

good  in  the  community.  And  if  you  have  a  bad  name  and 
the  monied  interests  are  complained  of,  it  is  because  there 
is  some  instinctive  feeling  that  here  and  there,  by  means 
of  money,  there  is  too  much  power  in  the  hands  of  a  few 
people.  That  you  want  to  counteract.  You  want  to  coun- 
teract it  by  your  justice,  and  by  your  humanity.  Not  by 
doling  out  charity,  but  by  doing  justice,  by  working  all 
the  time  as  intelligent  citizens,  after  the  manner  of  states- 
men who  promote  that  distributive  justice  which  satisfies 
everybody  and  makes  all  people  brethren. 

Of  course,  there  is  a  notion  in  the  world,  and  it  seems 
to  be  growing,  that  the  state  had  better  take  all  the  bank- 
ing unto  itself,  all  the  railroads  unto  itself,  all  the  lands 
unto  itself,  all  the  implements  and  means  of  production, 
and  all  the  factories,  and  everything,  unto  itself,  and  run 
them  all.  That  is  Socialism.  I  am  aware  that  about  99  out 
of  100  think  the  Socialistic  propaganda  is  to  cut  all  the 
property  up  into  little  bits  and  give  each  one  an  equal  bit. 
Just  think  of  cutting  all  the  land  here  on  Manhattan  Is- 
land, or  in  the  city  of  New  York,  up  into  5,000,000  bits  and 
giving  each  one  a  bit.  What  would  you  do  with  your  bit? 
Build  a  skyscraper  on  it  ?  But  they  have  no  such  thing  in 
their  minds  at  all.  That  is  absurd.  You  all  laugh  at  it. 
That  is  not  their  propaganda.  Their  propaganda  is  to 
mass  everything  under  the  control  of  the  state.  In  place  of 
dividing  property  up  into  little  bits,  they  mass  it  all  in  one 
lump  under  one  control,  namely,  of  the  state,  and  then  let 
the  state  pay  everybody.  I  think  under  that  system  each 
one  of  us  would  do  just  as  little  as  he  could,  wouldn't  he? 
All  ambition  and  emulation  would  be  gone.  The  mother 
of  excellence  in  the  world  is  competition.  It  would  be 
gone.  The  state  would  be  the  only  landlord,  the  only  em- 
ployer. Competition  would  be  gone,  and  everyone  doing 
as  little  as  he  could  because  he  would  only  be  paid  a  little 
anyhow.  The  result  would  be  that  the  total  product  would 
be  small,  and  grow  smaller  and  smaller.  The  result  would 
be  more  poverty  under  that  regime  than  the  world  ever 
saw  before.  And  it  would  not  last  one  generation — that 

271 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

is  my  opinion,  publicly  expressed  for  your  benefit,  and 
anyone  else  that  may  care  to  listen.  But  in  the  other 
way  of  competition  we  do  not  want  to  drive  it  to  the  extent 
of  putting  our  hobnails  into  the  flesh  of  our  brethren  and 
those  who  are  struggling  around  us,  whether  in  the  polit- 
ical field  or  in  the  bankers'  field,  or  in  the  workmen's  field. 
We  want  to  know  there  is  one  great  God  over  us  all. 
Knowing  that  solemnly  and  sincerely  we  should  use  it  in 
the  practical  affairs  of  life,  and  try  to  do  justice  to  all. 
And  that  is  distributive  justice.  Now,  you  bankers,  from 
all  parts,  go  home  and  try  to  do  that. 


The  Lessons  of  Farming 

(Extract  from  Speech  at  the  Syracuse  Fair,  September  12, 1911.) 

Mr.  Chairman  and  Gentlemen  of  the  State  of  New 
York:  What  particularly  interested  me  in  looking  over 
your  exhibit  so  far  as  I  have  gone  is  the  growth  of  the 
State  in  its  farming  interests  since  I  was  a  boy  on  the 
farm,  which  I  may  without  any  vanity  mention  since  so 
many  others  have  taken  the  liberty  of  lugging  it  in  by  the 
heels.  I  happen  also  to  have  been  born  and  brought  up 
on  a  farm,  and  have  a  vivid  recollection  of  farming  con- 
ditions in  those  days.  We  had  an  awful  hard  time  to 
live.  The  best  of  what  grew  on  the  farm  was  not  eaten 
at  all.  We  scarcely  ate  butter,  and  never  drank  any 
milk,  except  skimmed  milk.  We  seldom  ate  flesh  meat, 
except  pork,  and  seldom  eggs,  strange  as  it  may  sound  to 
the  prosperous  farmers  of  to-day.  Those  were  the  things 
which  brought  in  the  only  ready  money  which  we  had,  and 
we  saved  our  butter  and  such  things  until  the  agent  came 
around  to  buy  them  and  turn  them  into  ready  cash  to  pay 
the  bills  of  the  year.  The  rest  of  the  year  we  just  lived  the 
best  we  could  on  the  skimmed  milk  and  what  was  left,  and 
then  in  the  winter — I  won't  exactly  undertake  to  tell  you 
how  we  lived.  We  lived  somehow  or  another,  or  I  would 
not  be  here  and  when  we  came  out  of  it  all  with  pretty 

272 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

good  constitutions,  and  we  came  out  of  it  also  with  some 
preparation  for  life.  The  great  quality  of  perseverance 
is  learned  on  the  farm  as  nowhere  else.  The  city  people 
rush  about  mad  to  make  a  dollar,  and  jump  on  a  car  and 
spend  five  cents  and  go  back  and  forth  with  no  time  to 
spare,  and  do  just  their  formal  tasks  as  they  have  to  do 
them  from  day  to  day.  There  is  no  education  in  it. 
There  is  nothing  ennobling  about  it.  There  is  no  time 
left  to  them  to  think  or  to  invent  or  to  do  any  great  thing, 
so  that  the  cities,  according  to  their  population,  do  not 
produce  the  number  of  considerable  or  great  men  they 
should  produce.  But  out  in  the  country  the  lessons  are 
entirety  different.  You  learn  the  lessons  of  hardship. 
You  learn  that  you  have  to  work,  wet  or  dry,  and  in  the 
hot  sun.  and  stick  it  out  too  in  the  hot  sun  or  in  the  rain; 
or  go  into  the  woods  in  the  winter  and  log  it  and  cut  and 
skid  your  logs  and  haul  them  out,  and  hew  out  the  snow- 
banks in  order  to  get  in  and  out  half  the  time.  And  when 
you  look  at  a  great  big  cornfield,  with  all  its  rows  of  corn, 
a  great  field,  just  think  of  going  to  work  to  cultivate  and 
hoe  that  corn.  It  is  bad  enough  to  think  of  a  little  garden 
where  you  have  to  get  down  on  your  hands  and  knees  to 
weed.  That  is  tedious  enough.  But  the  big  cornfield  or 
the  big  potato  field,  why  the  city  chap  without  any  educa- 
tion or  perseverance — by  the  time  he  had  done  half  of  one 
of  these  long  rows  would  begin  to  count  how  many  there 
were  left,  and  quit.  He  would  say  "  This  is  an  endless 
job."  But  the  country  boy  has  to  stick  it  out,  row  after 
row  and  day  after  day.  So  that  in  after  life  a  big  task 
put  before  him  does  not  look  so  big,  because  he  has  been 
taught  the  experience  that  if  he  goes  to  work  at  it  silently 
and  systematically,  that  sooner  or  later,  and  soon  enough 
at  that,  it  will  all  be  done.  Now,  is  not  that  what  we 
learn  in  the  country  above  all  other  things;  so  that  when 
we  come  down  to  the  city  and  go  in  among  the  "  smart " 
people — I  mean  the  people  who  think  they  are  so  much 
smarter  than  we  are — we  are  not  at  all  feazed,  we  are  a 
little  awkward  no  doubt,  we  do  not  dress  quite  the  same, 

273 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

but  we  after  all  have  some  habits  that  equip  us  to  come 
into  the  competition  with  them  and  do  fairly  well.  How 
is  that? 

On  Opening  a  Jewish  Theatre 

(Address  at  the  Opening  of  Kessler's  Second  Avenue  Theatre, 
September  14,  1911.) 

This  theatre  really  is  astonishing.  There  are  a  cer- 
tain number  of  people  in  this  great  city  who  think  the  East 
Side  is  a  sort  of  slum.  Oh,  how  much  they  do  sympathize 
with  you.  And  how  much  a  year  some  of  them  are  being 
paid  for  sympathizing  with  you.  I  wish  they  were  all 
here  to-night  to  listen  to  this  play.  The  name  of  the  play 
is  "  God,  Man  and  Devil."  I  cannot  say  it  in  Yiddish, 
but  that  is  the  way  it  is  in  English.  Now,  that  is  a  pretty 
comprehensive  play.  It  takes  in  the  heavens  above  and 
the  earth  beneath  and  all  the  fire  and  water  under  the 
earth.  Nothing  is  left  out.  I  think  after  being  Mayor 
for  a  year  and  a  half  that  I  could  almost  write  a  play  on 
that  subject  myself.  The  great  trouble,  though,  very 
often,  is  to  distinguish  the  man  from  the  devil.  They 
look  a  good  deal  alike  sometimes  and  act  a  good  deal  alike, 
too,  and  maybe  this  play  will  develop  that  trait  as  you  wit- 
ness it.  However,  I  trust  and  am  assured  that  it  is  a 
good  play  of  high  dramatic  art.  I  do  not  know  why  it 
should  not  be.  You  people  are  of  a  dramatic  race.  Your 
whole  history  is  drama  and  tragedy,  from  the  twilight  of 
fable,  from  the  days  of  Abraham,  down  to  this  hour. 
Where  else  outside  of  your  scriptures,  the  Old  Testament 
in  our  bible,  is  there  so  much  of  exalted  poetry,  of  ex- 
alted tragedy?  All  the  literatures  of  the  world  in  these 
respects  and  in  others  nowhere  approach  the  books  of  what 
we  call  the  Old  Testament.  And  every  one  written  by 
one  of  your  race — one  of  the  Jewish  race.  That  is  no 
flattery  to  tell  you  that,  because  the  whole  world  knows  it. 
And  I  might  go  much  further  and  say  that  what  we  call 
the  New  Testament — the  second  part  of  our  bible — that 

274 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

every  chapter  and  every  line  of  it  also  was  written  by  a 
Jew.  So  that  the  Christian  bible — the  bible  that  we  all 
read — Old  Testament  and  New  Testament,  was  all  of  it 
written  by  Jews.  And  when  a  Christian  picks  up  his 
bible  to  read  it,  and  has  that  fact  in  his  mind,  how  on 
earth  is  he  going  to  have  any  ill  will  towards  the  Jew? 
And  yet,  after  taking  all  of  your  scriptures  and  all  of  the 
New  Testament,  written  by  Jews,  I  am  sorry  to  say  that 
in  some  way  or  another  they  did  turn  around  and  show  ill 
will  towards  you,  which,  however  is  happily  dying  out  all 
over  the  world,  and  I  shall  not  make  further  mention  of  it. 
May  be  some  of  it  does  survive  yet,  but  God  knows  I 
don't  know  how  it  does  survive  or  how  it  ever  existed  at 
all.  It  certainly  will  not  survive  much  longer,  even  in 
Russia. 

So  you  people  are  worthy  of  this  theatre.  This 
theatre  never  would  have  been  built  (with  all  respect  to 
the  architect  and  to  the  builder),  except  that  you  wanted 
it  and  that  your  genius  was  here  waiting  for  it.  Is  not 
that  so?  And  so  they  came  along  and  built  it  for  you, 
and  somebody  put  up  the  money  for  it,  and  I  suppose 
he  is  going  to  make  his  dividends  out  of  it  hereafter 
through  your  genius  for  the  drama  and  through  the  in- 
stinct that  you  have  for  good  plays  and  good  music. 

The  programme  said  that  Mr.  Johnson,  the  builder, 
was  going  to  give  me  the  key  of  the  building.  I  guess  it 
is  out  in  the  door  there  somewhere.  Where  is  it,  Johnson? 
The  next  speaker  is  Mr.  Kessler,  so  if  I  had  the  key,  Mr. 
Kessler,  as  the  programme  says,  I  would  give  it  to  you 
and  I  would  also  say  to  you,  "  Sir,  while  you  are  the  lessee 
of  this  theatre,  you  go  and  lock  that  outer  door  up  tight 
with  that  key  sooner  than  let  anything  foul  or  indecent  in 
the  way  of  plays  enter  this  theatre.  Hold  the  drama  up. 
Honor  the  people  that  come  here  to  take  an  interest  in 
the  drarmi."  I  am  sorry  to  say  it,  but  there  are  some  peo- 
ple in  the  city  of  New  York  now  of  base  mind,  dealing 
with  the  drama,  that  only  want  to  pull  it  down  in  the 
mud,  and  I  hope  this  will  never  occur  within  the  walls  of 

275 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

this  theatre.  It  never  will  so  long  as  the  people  of  the 
East  Side  remain  what  they  are  now — pure  of  mind,  aspir- 
ing to  advance  in  the  world,  pure  of  heart  and  with  an 
artistic  temperament.  I  tell  you  that  since  the  beginning 
of  the  world  art  and  filth  never  went  hand  in  hand,  never. 
And  they  never  will.  Look  at  the  masterpieces  of  comedy 
and  tragedy.  Look  at  the  pieces  played  by  Bonne,  and 
Von  Sonnenthal,  and  Rachael,  and  Bernhardt.  Why, 
those  were  great  actors  and  actresses  because  they  played 
legitimate  plays — plays  filled  with  morality  and  genius, 
which  did  not  degrade  the  community,  but  while  they  ele- 
vated us  mortals  up  almost,  as  the  saying  is,  to  the  skies, 
brought  angels  down,  and  purified  the  minds  of  every- 
body. That  that  is  the  future  of  this  theatre  is  the  hope 
which  I  now  express  in  declaring  it  open  and  delivering  it 
over  to  you,  Mr.  Kessler. 


Farmers'  Prices 

(Address   to  Farmers   from  Pennsylvania  at  City  Hall,  August 

31,  1911.) 

I  am  very  glad  indeed  to  receive  you,  farmers  from 
Pennsylvania,  all  of  you,  as  I  understand.  Most  people 
in  this  city  think  that  they  are  paying  you  altogether  too 
much  for  what  you  produce  and  send  down  here.  I  hap- 
pen to  have  been  born  and  reared  on  a  farm,  so  I  think  I 
may  say  that  I  am  of  a  different  opinion.  I  know  we 
had  a  pretty  hard  time  when  I  was  at  it,  to  make  both 
ends  meet,  and  I  guess  it  is  pretty  much  the  same  all  over 
the  United  States  yet,  although  we  hear  some  people 
here  in  the  city  talking  about  the  farmers  rolling  in  wealth 
with  their  high  prices.  The  figures  read  here  this  morn- 
ing show  that  although  we  do  pay  unconscionably  high 
prices  here  these  prices  do  not  go  to  you.  Apparently 
only  about  one-third  of  it  ever  reaches  you.  The  rest 
goes  to  the  carrier  and  the  middleman,  and  so  on.  The 
people  in  the  cities  also  do  not  remember  that  if  you  are 

27(5 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

receiving  higher  prices  for  your  farm  products  than  you 
formerly  did  you  are,  on  the  other  hand,  paying  much 
higher  prices  for  everything  which  you  have  to  buy.  So 
that  the  case  with  you  is  about  the  same  as  it  used  to  be. 
It  is  just  about  the  same  old  story — to  work  hard  sunny 
day  and  rainy  day  all  the  year  round,  and  live.  That  is 
about  what  it  amounts  to  in  the  country  the  same  as  in  the 
city.  Now,  these  high  prices  are  general.  You  only 
need  to  go  to  London  or  Paris  to  find  the  prices  there 
higher  than  ever,  the  price  of  living.  Some  of  you  know 
that  without  my  reminding  you  of  it.  One  of  the  chief est 
causes  of  the  advance  in  prices  of  commodities  all  over  the 
world  is  the  excessive  output  of  gold.  Really  the  thing 
ought  to  be  put  the  other  way.  The  real  cause  is  that 
money  is  cheaper  than  it  used  to  be.  That  is  to  say,  a 
dollar  of  gold  or  paper,  which  is  equivalent  to  gold,  is 
cheaper  than  it  used  to  be  and  will  not  buy  as  much  as  it 
used  to  buy  because  the  gold  mines  are  putting  out  such 
great  quantities  of  gold,  the  like  of  which  was  never  known 
in  the  world  before.  Gold,  which  is  only  a  commodity 
like  all  other  commodities,  is  growing  less  valuable  all  the 
time,  the  more  of  it  that  is  mined,  and  therefore  a  given 
amount  of  gold  will  buy  a  less  and  less  quantity  of  com- 
modities. So  it  has  come  to  pass  that  you  almost  have  to 
put  up  two  dollars  to  buy  what  you  used  to  be  able  to  buy 
for  one  dollar.  Now  the  largest  cause  that  I  know  of  for 
that,  is  the  over  production  of  gold  or  the  great  produc- 
tion of  gold.  I  need  not  tell  intelligent  farmers  that 
when  you  expand  money,  money  becomes  of  less  value  and 
therefore  purchases  less;  but  we  generally  state  it  in  the 
other  way,  that  other  commodities  have  grown  high  when 
in  fact  the  medium  of  exchange,  money,  has  grown  less 
valuable.  There  are  other  causes  also  which  account  for 
the  high  prices,  and  some  of  them  are  the  causes  which  you 
have  laid  here  before  me  this  morning — of  the  commodi- 
ties going  through  too  many  hands  before  they  reach  the 
consumer,  and  then  the  freight  rates,  although  it  must  be 
said  in  justice  to  the  railroads,  that  the  freight  rates  here 

277 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

except  for  local  hauls  are  not  excessive.  They  are  far 
greater  in  Europe  than  they  are  here,  gentlemen,  as  you 
happen  to  know.  The  trouble  in  this  country  has  not 
been  excessive  freight  rates.  The  trouble  has  been  that 
the  railroads  have  assumed  to  give  favorite  rates  to  a  few 
people.  That  has  been  the  trouble.  And  so  far  as  I  had 
any  advice  to  give  when  that  matter  was  rife  in  Washing- 
ton, I  stated  to  the  then  President,  who  consulted  me 
about  it,  not  to  try  to  lower  rates  too  much  but  to  have  it 
established  that  no  man  could  have  his  freight  carried  ex- 
cept at  the  same  rate  that  every  other  man  pays.  The 
reason  for  that  is  this,  that  the  man  who  can  have  his 
freight,  whether  it  is  oil  or  steel  or  iron  or  wire  fence  or 
what  not,  carried  at  a  rate  lower  than  his  competitor,  can 
thereby  undersell  his  competitor  in  the  market  that  much 
and  drive  him  out  of  business,  and  thereby  create  the 
monopolies  and  trusts  that  have  been  created  all  over  this 
country.  I  do  not  think  there  is  a  man  in  this  country 
that  fears  honest  competition  against  anybody.  We 
have  all  got  bravery  enough  to  be  ready  to  compete  with 
any  comer  and  all  comers;  but  when  you  are  the  pro- 
ducer of  a  commodity  and  you  have  a  rival  that  you  are 
competing  with  producing  the  same  commodity  and  you 
find  that  he  can  have  his  commodity  carried  over  the  rail- 
roads of  the  country  to  the  markets  at  a  price  so  much 
below  you  that  he  can  undersell  you  that  much  in  the 
market  and  destroy  your  business,  then  the  railroads  are 
being  used  for  the  most  damnable  purpose  that  anything 
was  ever  put  to  in  this  world.  And  it  is  my  belief  that  all 
of  the  trusts  in  the  country,  substantially,  were  built  up 
on  favoritism  in  freight  rates.  You  would  just  as  leave 
compete  in  your  line  with  any  man,  but  if  he  can  have  his 
commodity  carried  to  market  at  one-third  less  than  you 
are  paying  or  one-half  less,  why  all  you  can  do  is  to  throw 
up  your  hands  and  sell  out  your  business  to  him  and  quit. 
Now,  the  government  is  doing  I  suppose  all  it  can  do  to 
stop  that.  Some  people  are  so  easily  deceived  that  they 
think  it  all  has  been  stopped.  I  am  not  quite  so  credulous 

278 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

as  that.  In  fact,  I  happen  to  know  that  it  has  not  been 
stopped.  But  in  the  course  of  time,  I  suppose  we  will 
stop  it  some  way  or  another.  The  people  of  the  country 
will  stop  it.  And  then  those  monopolies  cannot  be  created 
out  of  railroad  rates  any  longer  and  thereby  get  the  con- 
trol of  prices  in  the  hands  of  a  few  people  of  the  country. 

Now  I  have  mentioned  to  you  the  two  chief  things 
that  are  meddling  with  and  disturbing  prices — the  great 
output  of  gold,  which  we  cannot  complain  of  because  that 
is  in  the  province  of  Almighty  God  and  the  laws  of  nature. 
The  other  we  can  complain  of  and  do  complain  of  and  it 
must  stop. 

Now,  your  object  to  get  your  things  down  here  and 
get  them  to  the  consumer  as  near  to  the  price  that  you  re- 
ceive as  possible,  is  most  laudable.  I  assure  you  we  will 
be  glad  to  get  them  at  that  price  if  you  can  manage  to  give 
them  to  us.  You  may  encounter  a  hard  job,  but  if  you 
persevere  and  your  movement  spreads,  why  I  think  some- 
thing can  be  accomplished  on  that  line.  I  can  only  say 
that  while  I  am  here  I  shall  be  very  glad  to  meet  you  and 
assist  you  in  any  way  that  I  can. 


Advice  on  Entering  Politics 

(Speech  at  the  Dinner  of  the  Politics  Club  of  Columbia  Uni- 
versity, March  13,  1913.) 

Mr.  Chairman  and  Gentlemen  of  the  Politics  Club :  I 
notice  you  have  good  lungs  any  way,  whatever  else  may  be 
the  case.  I  certainly  am  very  glad  to  meet  a  body  of 
young  men  like  this.  It  almost  makes  me  feel  young  my- 
self, if  that  were  possible.  At  all  events  it  makes  me  feel 
quiet,  and  think  of  some  things  that  I  do  not  think  of  in 
the  surroundings  of  my  daily  life.  Most  of  the  people 
that  I  meet,  or  many  of  those  I  meet,  are  mere  self-seekers, 
without  sincerity.  I  suppose  you  know  there  is  a  large 
percentage  of  the  city  that  is  wholly  corrupt.  You  are 
young  politicians;  you  are  associated  under  a  club  of 

279 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

that  name.  Your  desire  is  to  go  into  politics  from  high 
motives.  But  the  first  disappointment  you  will  encounter 
is  that  you  will  be  surrounded  by  men  of  bad  motives,  low 
motives,  selfish  motives.  You  all  think  now  that  you  have 
high  motives,  and  I  have  no  doubt  it  is  so.  Whether 
you  will  preserve  them  or  not  is  another  thing,  when  you 
get  out  into  contact  with  the  world.  But  you  must  try  to. 
I  hardly  know  what  to  say  to  you.  I  was  looking  over 
the  letter  of  Mr.  Trimble,  your  chairman,  on  the  way  up 
to  see  what  cue  I  could  get ;  and  he  says  he  would  like  me 
to  speak  to  you  about  the  duties  of  young  men  entering 
politics  and  the  problems  they  will  encounter.  And 
then  he  wants  me  to  tell  what  are  the  most  serious  dif- 
ficulties in  the  government  of  a  great  city.  Just  think  of 
that.  I  have  a  notion  to  begin  at  the  last  of  his  queries 
and  tell  them,  but  may  be  it  is  just  as  well  that  I  should 
not  do  so.  The  duties  of  young  men  entering  politics  is 
what  he  mentions  first.  Now  your  duties  are  about  the 
same  wherever  you  may  be;  but  of  course  they  vary  ac- 
cording to  the  locality  in  which  you  start  life.  I  suppose 
some  of  you  intend  to  be  lawyers,  and  some  doctors ;  some 
are  going  into  business  and  some  will  be  engineers,  and 
so  on.  Wherever  your  lot  is  cast,  if  you  enter  politics  you 
will  have  duties  to  perform.  Every  man  should  enter 
politics.  That  is  to  say,  every  man  should  perform  the 
duties  of  a  citizen,  whether  he  be  a  college  graduate  or 
not.  But  I  suppose  you  have  something  further  than  that 
in  mind.  You  contemplate  that  you  shall  actually  go 
into  the  field  of  politics.  You  contemplate  possibly  that 
you  will  run  for  office.  You  all  contemplate  no  doubt  you 
will  have  my  office  in  a  few  years,  those  of  you  who  live 
in  the  city  of  New  York  at  all  events;  and  I  am  sure  I 
wish  you  all  to  have  your  wish  in  that  respect.  But  of 
all  things  first  analyze  your  mind  and  see  what  your  mo- 
tives are.  See  whether  you  are  going  into  politics  really 
from  high  motives  or  not.  Are  you  going  into  politics  to 
help  the  community  or  to  help  yourself?  It  is  very  easy 
to  deceive  ourselves.  But  my  advice  to  you  is  to  go  into 

2SO 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

politics  only  after  a  firm  resolve  that  your  whole  and  only 
motive  is  to  help  the  community  in  which  your  lot  is  cast. 
Just  forget  yourself.  Don't  be  a  self  seeker.  If  you 
go  into  politics  in  that  spirit  then  you  will  do  much  good. 
If  you  go  into  politics  simply  to  seek  your  own  personal 
advancement  and  welfare  then  it  were  much  better  that 
you  stay  out  of  politics.  We  can  do  nothing  in  this  world 
worth  while  unless  we  are  inspired  by  the  motive  of  doing 
good  to  others.  All  the  great  men  of  the  world,  except 
those  who  were  moved  by  ambition  and  by  wrong  motives, 
and  are  miscalled  great,  became  great  in  that  way.  The 
philosophers  were  great  in  that  way.  Moses  was  great 
in  that  way.  Jesus  was  great  in  that  way.  They  lived 
for  others,  not  for  themselves.  And  at  the  same  time  it 
is  no  harm  for  me  to  say  that  those  who  live  in  that  way 
take  care  of  themselves  also.  At  the  same  time  others 
take  care  of  them.  But  do  not  be  a  self-seeker.  For 
young  men  to  go  into  politics  just  to  be  gabby  little  fel- 
lows, making  a  noise  and  trying  to  get  into  office,  is  a  very 
poor  way  of  entering  life.  Indeed,  do  not  do  it.  Have  a 
motive — a  high  motive;  and  then  do  the  best  you  can, 
whatever  your  pursuit  in  life  may  be.  Everybody  has 
duties.  Mr.  Trimble  said,  What  are  your  duties  in  enter- 
ing office?  Why,  we  all  have  duties  whether  we  enter 
politics  or  not,  and  our  duties  are  to  our  fellow  men.  We 
have  a  duty  to  our  family,  to  those  nearest  us;  but  the 
greatest  duty  of  all  that  we  have  is  the  duty  which  we  owe 
to  humanity,  then  to  our  own  country,  and  then  to  those 
around  us.  Some  would  say  the  country  first  and  hu- 
manity second.  That  is  a  false  theory.  Let  your  hori- 
zon be  just  as  wide  as  you  can  make  it.  You  will  be  all 
the  greater  for  that.  And  you  cannot  be  really  great  un- 
less your  horizon  is  the  horizon  of  all  humanity.  No  one 
was  ever  great  with  a  less  horizon  than  that.  Do  not 
over-shoot  the  mark  either.  Do  not  be  too  eager.  Be 
self-contained.  Know  what  you  want  and  then  pursue 
that  course.  Why,  when  you  look  around  and  see  the  lit- 
tle noisy  and  gabby  politicians  you  certainly  have  no  wish 

281 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

to  join  them,  if  that  is  what  you  mean.  That  would  be 
miserable  business.  Be  self-contained.  Very  often 
young  men  entering  into  politics  want  to  go  to  the  Legis- 
lature. They  generally  start  out  that  way.  That  is  the 
way  Lincoln  started  out,  and  most  of  the  great  men  that 
you  can  mention.  Well,  what  course  should  you  pursue 
in  that  respect?  Why,  you  should  go  there  for  a  purpose, 
if  that  be  the  way  you  start.  How  many  wrecks  I  have 
seen  at  Albany  in  my  time.  I  never  was  a  member  of  the 
Legislature,  but  I  have  been  an  onlooker  for  a  long  time. 
I  did  think  once  when  I  was  a  young  chap  like  you  that 
that  was  the  height  of  my  ambition,  to  be  a  member  of 
the  Assembly,  and  it  is  a  great  ambition  too.  But  I  saw 
young  men  go  there,  and  it  was  failure  after  failure.  The 
reason  was  as  a  rule  that  they  had  no  sand  in  them.  They 
had  no  moral  stamina.  They  did  not  know  enough  when 
they  went  up  there  to  go  and  hire  a  boarding  house  about 
two  miles  away  from  the  Capitol,  and  go  there  every  time 
the  Legislature  adjourned,  night  or  morning.  In  place 
of  that  they  would  run  out  of  the  Legislature  and  then 
run  down  to  the  hotel  and  stand  in  the  lobby  like  great 
men,  and  the  rest  of  the  time  they  would  stand  at  the  bar. 
And  they  would  talk  to  everybody  that  came  along,  and 
made  themselves  little.  In  that  way  they  acquired  frivo- 
lous habits  and  bad  habits,  and  they  came  down  home 
transformed.  You  know  what  I  mean.  Every  time  I  go 
to  Albany  or  to  Washington  I  cannot  help  looking  at 
the  people  around,  not  only  some  of  the  legislators,  but 
the  people  who  come  there.  Did  you  ever  see  such  a  lot 
of  gabby  people,  and  so  many  sharpers  and  so  many  small 
people.  And  they  look  so  cagy,  did  you  ever  notice?  I 
was  over  in  Washington  recently,  and  that  was  the  one 
thing  I  said  to  the  man  who  was  with  me,  "  Let's  get  away 
from  here.  I  never  saw  so  many  cagy  looking  people." 
At  the  Capitol — even  at  the  White  House,  in  the  outer 
room  and  especially  in  the  lobby  of  the  hotels — every  man 
a  gabby,  cagy  little  fellow.  Now  you  avoid  that.  Don't 
do  that.  Be  a  self-contained  man.  Be  a  studious  man. 

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MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

Why,  it  is  enough  to  make  one  shiver  to  have  some  of  these 
gabby  little  people  come  near  you  at  all,  they  are  so  smart. 
I  acknowledge  they  are  smart.  They  could  give  us  aces 
and  spades,  if  that  be  the  right  term,  and  beat  us  in  small 
things.  But  I  think  we  would  have  the  best  of  them  every 
time  in  large  things.  And  that  is  where  you  want  to 
stand.  Be  studious  people.  Do  not  give  up  your  studies. 
Keep  reading  when  you  go  out  of  here.  If  you  are 
studying  mathematics,  continue  the  study  of  it.  It  is  one 
of  the  greatest  drills  for  the  mind.  That  has  been  one  of 
the  solaces  of  my  life.  I  don't  mind  saying  that  I  like 
now  to  take  a  problem  of  Euclid  and  pore  over  it  and  do  it 
again,  and  think  I  am  as  smart  at  it  as  I  was  when  I  was 
your  age,  which  of  course  I  am  not.  And  the  same  with 
your  reading.  Pick  up  especially  works  of  the  phil- 
osophy of  history.  There  was  once  a  great  professor  here 
in  New  York  who  wrote  "  The  Intellectual  Development 
of  Europe,"  Professor  Draper,  I  think  he  was  a  professor 
here  in  this  University.  The  book  is  now  somewhat  out 
of  date  scientifically — I  admit  that.  There  are  some 
errors  in  it.  But  read  books  like  that.  Read  Lecky. 
Read  Hallam.  Read  the  book  of  Emil  Reich,  "  Success 
Among  Nations."  Read  Green's  "  History  of  the  Eng- 
lish People."  And  such  books  as  that.  And  then,  of 
course,  other  books,  like  the  Bible  and  Shakespeare,  and 
works  of  autobiography,  like  Franklin  and  Benvenuto 
Cellini.  I  ought  not  to  mention  Cellini  again,  because  I 
happened  to  mention  him  not  long  ago,  and  the  book  stores 
here  in  a  few  days  hadn't  a  copy  left,  there  were  so  few 
people  in  this  city  that  had  ever  read  him,  and  yet  it  is  one 
of  the  finest  autobiographies  ever  written.  Keep  up  your 
studious  habits,  and  the  identity  which  you  acquire  here. 
You  are  not  doing  much  more  here  than  learning  how  to 
learn.  Unless  you  acquire  the  studious  habit  here  you 
might  as  well  go  home  to-morrow.  And  do  not  be  under 
the  delusion  that  you  can  get  to  anything  great  in  this 
world  without  preparation.  It  is  a  false  notion  with  which 
you  boys  and  young  men  are  sometimes  deluded.  I  do 

2S3 


MAYOR    GAYNQR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

not  know  whether  any  of  the  professors  are  here.  But 
you  are  sometimes  deluded  by  your  professors.  I  have 
seen  it  often  enough.  You  are  told  things  that  are  ex- 
aggerations. Do  not  rely  upon  your  genius.  I  know 
you  are  all  geniuses.  But  nevertheless  do  not  rely  on  it. 
It  has  been  said  by  a  man  who  has  sense  that  genius  is  two 
per  cent,  inspiration  and  98  per  cent,  perspiration.  And 
that  is  about  true.  The  only  genius  there  is  is  the  genius 
of  getting  ready.  That  is  genius.  No  man  ever  lived  who 
knew  how  to  get  ready  better  than  Caesar  or  Napoleon; 
and  yet  boys  coming  out  of  college  think  they  won  their 
great  victories,  and  did  their  great  things,  just  by  inspira- 
tion, by  genius.  Why,  when  Napoleon  came  on  the  field 
of  battle  he  knew  not  only  all  the  troops  he  had,  but  he 
knew  where  they  were.  He  knew  even  where  every  bread 
wagon  was.  And  he  was  able  to  pick  them  all  up  and 
throw  them  on  the  enemy  because  he  had  them  in  hand. 
He  had  got  ready.  He  tramped  around  his  camps  at 
night  in  bad  weather  when  his  soldiers  were  asleep.  And 
he  went  away  out  sometimes  almost  alone  to  reconnoiter 
the  country  and  he  knew  every  road  and  every  stream  and 
every  obstacle.  That  is  genius.  Get  ready  and  you  are 
a  genius.  But  if  you  think  you  can  do  it  without  getting 
ready  you  are  more  fool  than  genius,  I  can  tell  you  that. 
And  you  cannot  do  that  without  keeping  up  your  thought- 
fulness  and  your  study.  You  must  do  it  to  succeed. 
Some  of  you  think  you  want  to  be  lawyers,  I  suppose; 
and  you  think  you  will  be  a  great  lawyer  by  being  a  talka- 
tive fellow.  Never  was  a  talkative  fellow  a  great  lawyer. 
Not  even  once.  The  saying  is  that  no  lawyer  ever  came 
to  fame  with  a  straight  back  or  without  a  pale  face.  That 
tells  the  whole  story.  To  be  great  in  anything  you  have 
to  toil  terribly,  in  the  language  of  Sydney  Smith.  There 
is  no  other  way  to  do  it.  You  have  got  to  pay  the  price; 
and  if  you  are  not  willing  to  pay  the  price  you  cannot  do 
it.  Some  of  the  people  in  the  rear  of  the  court  room  think 
that  fellow  with  an  immense  diamond  in  his  shirt  bosom 
and  with  a  very  loud  voice  is  the  greatest  lawyer  there. 

284 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

But  there  is  another  chap  there  that  they  hardly  hear,  and 
who  maybe  looks  quite  insignificant ;  but  the  Judge  and 
the  jury  know  that  he  is  the  great  lawyer.  He  knows 
something.  The  fellow  with  the  big  diamond  and  the  big 
voice  is  more  fit  to  run  a  slaughter  house.  We  have  such 
people  here  in  the  City  of  New  York,  I  know  that.  Some 
of  them  are  dead  and  gone,  and  some  of  them  remain  still. 
But  do  not  imitate  them.  Take  my  word  for  it  that  the 
studious  man,  the  equipped  man  (doctor,  lawyer,  engi- 
neer, business  man),  he  is  the  man  who  will  come  out 
ahead  of  everybody  else.  He  knows  how  to  do  it,  and  he 
is  serious  too.  He  does  not  look  at  his  own  figure  all  the 
time,  nor  does  he  practise  before  a  looking  glass  to  see 
how  nice  his  gestures  are.  Yet  I  have  heard  professors 
advise  boys  going  into  politics  and  the  law  to  study 
gestures  and  practise  before  looking  glasses,  and  adjust 
their  hair  in  a  very  nice  manner,  and  all  such  foppery  and 
foolery  as  that.  Why,  it  amounts  to  nothing.  The  man 
is  what  amounts  to  something.  Lincoln  was  a  great 
lawyer — tried  great  cases — lost  great  cases — won  great 
cases.  You  are  told,  maybe,  in  the  school  that  he  would 
not  take  any  case  unless  he  knew  it  was  a  good  one  and 
that  he  could  win  it.  Don't  believe  any  such  nonsense  as 
that.  He  was  a  lawyer;  and  he  took  good  cases  and  bad 
cases  because  it  was  his  duty  to  do  it.  What  would  be- 
come of  us  if  nobody  would  take  our  case  unless  it  was  a 
good  one?  Such  talk.  He  was  lawyer  for  the  Illinois 
Central  Railroad  Company  for  years,  and  defended  dam- 
age suits,  cases  where  poor  fellows  lost  their  arms  and 
their  legs.  Do  not  allow  these  things  to  deceive  you  at 
all.  Take  the  world  as  it  is.  Then  you  are  told  that 
Webster  never  lost  a  case;  and  Choate  never  lost  a  case, 
and  so  on.  Why,  they  lost  more  cases  than  they  won 
after  they  were  40  years  of  age,  because  people  who  had 
hard  cases  came  to  them  with  them.  It  is  not  the  test  of 
a  lawyer  whether  he  wins  his  case.  The  test  is  what 
equipment  he  brings  into  it,  and  how  he  conducts  it.  That 
is  the  test.  And  have  no  exaggerated  notion,  you  young 

285 


politicians  and  lawyers  (the  two  things  go  together  very 
largely),  have  no  exaggerated  notion  about  eloquence  and 
oratory.  Don't  let  them  fool  you  about  that  either.  I 
suppose  you  have  all  read  by  this  time  that  it  is  said  that 
Demosthenes  when  asked  the  first  great  requisite  of  ora- 
tory said  "  Action,"  and  then  asked  for  the  second  great 
requisite,  again  said  "  Action,"  and  the  third  time  he  re- 
peated "  Action."  What  kind  of  an  orator  would  he  be 
that  was  all  action  and  nothing  else?  What  nonsense 
when  you  come  to  analyze  these  things.  Some  of  the 
greatest  orators  that  ever  lived  stood  still  with  their  hands 
on  the  table  or  in  their  pockets.  In  place  of  action  being 
the  great  requisite  even  once,  let  alone  three  times,  the  first 
requisite  of  all  is  a  man  with  a  purpose — an  honest  man, 
with  an  honest  purpose — that  is  the  first  requisite ;  and  not 
some  fellow  who  cannot  keep  his  hands  still.  The  next 
requisite  is  to  have  something  to  say,  a  message  to  deliver. 
And  the  third  requisite,  and  the  least  of  all,  is  the  manner 
of  saying  it,  and  what  gestures  you  will  make  while  say- 
ing it.  Now,  there  is  the  orator.  You  may  easily  learn 
from  history  that  the  greatest  orators,  or  many  of  them, 
were  only  fair  speakers,  and  many  of  them  poor  speakers. 
Some  of  them  stuttered  even.  Lord  Bacon  says  Moses 
stuttered.  I  don't  know  how  he  found  it  out.  If  the  man 
is  there,  and  the  matter  is  there,  he  will  make  himself 
understood  somehow.  And  of  course  it  is  well  that  he  is 
able  to  make  himself  fairly  understood  by  the  use  of 
words.  But  he  will  make  himself  understood.  And  that 
is  the  orator.  The  greatest  orator  who  survives  in  the 
English  tongue  is  Burke,  who  emptied  the  Ho^se  of  Com- 
mons when  he  got  up  to  speak.  The  House  of  Commons 
may  have  preferred  to  go  out  to  the  restaurant  for  tea,  if 
that  be  what  they  drank  there,  but  the  world  listened  to 
what  he  had  to  say.  And  he  was  a  great  orator.  So 
have  no  false  notions  about  that.  Don't  be  a  little  blather- 
skite. There  is  an  immeasurable  distance  between  a 
blatherskite  and  an  orator.  Do  not  confound  eloquence 
or  oratory  with  rhetoric.  I  have  heard  rhetoricians  that 

286 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

could  talk  from  the  beginning  of  the  week  to  the  end  in 
the  most  beautiful  manner,  but  they  were  not  orators. 
They  made  no  slips  of  grammar.  Their  words  were 
beautiful.  But  they  were  mere  words.  I  have  seen 
great  feats  of  rhetoric,  and  I  have  heard  great  orators.  I 
have  heard  great  orators  that  some  people  would  not 
listen  to.  The  greatest  feat  of  the  human  voice  or  of 
great  rhetoric  that  I  ever  heard  was  at  Chicago  at  the  Con- 
vention that  nominated  Grover  Cleveland  the  last  time,  I 
think.  It  was  held  in  a  great  big  place  called  a  wigwam, 
covering  a  block  or  two.  Why,  nobody  could  be  heard. 
Orators  came  up  all  day  from  noon  till  midnight  to  the 
platform  from  all  parts  of  the  country,  who  were  rated 
great  orators  in  their  locality;  but  they  could  not  even  be 
heard  in  that  vast  place.  I  did  not  believe  there  was  a  man 
in  the  world  that  could  be  heard  there.  I  had  read  in  books 
of  men  speaking  to  30,000  people  in  the  open  air  and 
being  heard,  but  I  did  not  believe  it,  and  I  do  not  believe 
it  now,  to  tell  the  truth.  And  I  did  not  believe  there  was 
a  person  in  the  world  that  could  be  heard  in  this  hall  of  the 
convention.  And  yet  about  one  o'clock  in  the  morning 
when  everybody  had  been  yelling  and  everybody  had  been 
tired  out,  and  every  orator  in  the  country  had  tried  to  be 
heard,  I  saw  a  man  who  was  sitting  right  in  front  of  me 
get  up  and  go  down  the  aisle  and  jump  up  on  the  reporters' 
table,  and  then  up  on  the  stage  and  lean  back  against  a 
table  on  the  stage  preparatory  to  speaking.  And  it  was 
nothing  but  confusion  and  noise.  And  in  a  few  minutes, 
I  mean  a  few  moments,  a  few  seconds,  you  could  hear  a 
pin  drop  all  over  this  vast  place.  I  could  hear  nothing 
but  the  breathing  of  people  around  me.  The  breath  of 
people  was  quickened  as  this  man  proceeded.  And  he 
only  leaned  back  against  the  table  as  if  to  say  "  I  do  not 
care  one  cent  whether  you  listen  to  me  or  not ;  I  am  going 
to  talk  for  a  while."  And  he  did  talk  for  half  an  hour 
or  more  in  absolute  silence — the  first  silence  that  was  heard 
in  that  convention,  and  the  last.  He  was  from  New 
York.  But  I  confess  when  he  got  through  I  could  not  re- 

287 


MAYOR  GAYNOR'S  LETTERS  AND  SPEECHES 

member  a  thing  that  he  had  said  except  one,  and  that  was 
that  Grover  Cleveland  was  the  most  popular  man  in  the 
United  States  on  every  day  in  the  year  except  election 
day.  To  this  hour  I  do  not  remember  another  thing  that 
he  said.  But  he  was  a  great  rhetorician.  I  do  not  say 
he  was  a  blatherskite.  I  leave  you  to  judge  of  that.  That 
was  a  great  feat  of  the  human  voice.  But  what  he  said 
had  no  wings.  It  has  not  come  down  to  you;  let  alone  is 
it  going  down  to  after  generations.  The  man  after  all 
who  wins  in  the  long  run  is  the  man  of  a  sincere  and  honest 
purpose.  He  may  be  a  poor  speaker.  He  may  stutter, 
or  have  some  impediment,  or  have  difficulty  in  collecting 
his  thoughts.  But  he  will  be  ahead  at  the  end  of  the  race ; 
I  will  bet  any  money  on  that ;  unless  it  is  some  little  miser- 
able little  twenty-yard  race,  or  something  like  that.  I 
am  speaking  now  of  a  race  where  wind  tells.  Some  of 
you  may  think  I  am  jocose,  but  I  am  not.  I  mean  every 
word  of  it.  I  have  observed  all  these  things  in  the  course 
of  my  life.  I  have  seen  great  statesmen,  great  speakers, 
great  rhetoricians,  and  a  few  orators.  But  I  am  telling 
you  that  the  man  who  at  your  age  learns  to  be  self-con- 
tained, who  has  no  desire  to  be  a  gabby  fellow,  no  desire 
even  to  be  a  rhetorician,  but  a  great  desire  to  do  something, 
will  beat  them  all  in  the  end.  You  can  rely  upon  that. 
So  that  is  what  you  are  here  in  this  college  for.  Now  you 
see  what  you  get  by  Trimble  asking  me  to  tell  you  how 
to  enter  politics.  Why,  if  you  think  you  want  to  enter 
politics  to  dazzle  people  you  won't  dazzle  them  at  all. 
They  will  say,  what  a  miserable  little  fellow  he  is.  But 
if  they  see  that  you  are  a  man  who  has  some  high  thoughts, 
who  is  self-contained,  who  is  not  consumed  in  airing  him- 
self all  the  time,  then  they  will  have  confidence  in  you. 
And  remember,  my  young  friends,  that  silence  has  a  won- 
derful power.  I  have  to  go  out  and  speak  at  night  so 
much  now  that  I  have  almost  forgotten  it.  There  is  a 
little  book  written  about  the  power  of  silence,  which  is 
worth  reading.  Have  no  desire  in  entering  politics,  or 
entering  any  profession  or  occupation,  to  talk  merely  to 

288 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

talk.  Do  not  talk  unless  you  have  something  to  say.  If 
you  have  got  something  to  say  you  have  a  right  to  talk, 
but  if  you  only  want  to  listen  to  the  sound  of  your  own 
voice  like  some  people  who  come  in  the  Board  of  Estimate 
downtown,  why,  I  would  say  to  you  Don't.  Simply  be 
self-contained  enough  not  to  put  yourself  forward  until 
you  have  got  something  to  say,  and  then  you  will  have 
people  to  listen  to  you. 

Now  the  next  thing  that  Mr.  Trimble  said  in  his  let- 
ter was  for  me  to  mention  some  things  that  you  have  to 
encounter  now  in  the  field  of  politics.  Well,  there  are 
many  things.  The  last  Presidential  campaign  opened  up 
many  things.  I  cannot  say  that  that  campaign  opened 
them  up.  They  were  rife  already,  but  it  is  for  us  to 
broaden  out  to  meet  them  squarely  and  fairly.  If  you 
are  going  into  politics  you  have  got  to  meet  the  growing 
situation  from  year  to  year.  My  advice  to  you  is  not  to 
be  too  conservative.  But  of  all  things  do  not  be  too  radi- 
cal either.  The  human  race  is  like  an  infant  learning  to 
walk.  It  can  only  learn  to  toddle  and  to  walk  just  so 
much.  And  if  you  in  your  great  zeal  run  ahead  shouting 
your  theories  you  will  find  yourself  alone  after  you  have 
gone  a  little  distance.  Lincoln  always  said  that  he  was 
not  a  leader  at  all — that  he  only  tried  to  keep  up  with  the 
people,  and  I  think  that  was  so.  There  have  been  events 
in  the  world  where  the  theorists  and  people  of  large  ideas 
got  ahead  of  their  time.  That  was  the  trouble  with  Jesus, 
and  he  lost  his  life  through  it.  He  went  farther  than  they 
would  follow.  His  motives  were  not  merely  religious, 
but  political  and  economic,  as  you  see  in  reading  the  Gos- 
pels. He  went  further  than  the  times  would  go  with  him. 
The  French  Revolution  leaped  forward  a  hundred  years. 
They  changed  the  calendar.  They  changed  everything. 
They  changed  the  weights  and  measures,  which  is  a  curious 
study  in  itself.  They  did  many  great  things,  but  they 
went  further  than  the  people  would  follow,  and  the  result 
was  that  it  all  doubled  back  on  itself,  and  they  had  to  go 
back  to  the  front  ranks  of  the  people  and  resume  the  step 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

by  step  method.  To  give  a  familiar  illustration,  when 
they  established  their  weights  and  measures  they  used 
Greek  terms.  But,  dear  me,  the  people  had  been  using 
their  hand  and  their  foot  and  common  terms  for  weights 
and  measures,  and  they  simply  would  not  accept  the  Greek 
nomenclature  that  they  tried  to  impose  on  them.  I  only 
mention  that  as  an  illustration  of  the  whole  thing.  And 
it  is  only  now  in  France  that  the  French  people  are  giv- 
ing up  the  idea  of  the  yard  and  the  foot  and  the  hands 
and  so  forth  as  standards  of  measure.  So  that  while  you 
must  not  be  too  conservative  you  must  not  be  too  radical. 
We  have  among  us  now  in  this  country  people  calling  them- 
selves radicals  who  think  it  is  radicalism  to  pull  everything 
up  by  the  roots.  It  is  radical  to  go  to  the  root  of  matters, 
but  to  go  to  pulling  everything  up  by  the  roots  until  you 
have  something  else  to  plant  instead  is  the  height  of  folly. 
The  column  in  this  room  here  may  be  rotten,  but  to  go  and 
pull  it  down  would  be  only  to  pull  the  whole  roof  down  on 
top  of  you.  The  way  to  do  it  is  to  prepare  a  better 
column  and  have  it  ready  and  jack  up  the  roof  and  take 
the  old  column  out  and  put  the  new  one  in.  It  is  the  same 
in  government  and  in  politics.  You  have  to  proceed  in 
just  that  way.  Do  not  be  under  the  delusion  that  you 
can  do  it  in  any  other  way.  It  is  not  possible.  You 
should  proceed  patiently.  Tsro  matter  how  advanced  your 
ideas  are  and  what  great  projects  you  have  in  mind  you 
must  always  remember  that  to  carry  them  out  you  have  to 
begin  at  the  point  where  you  stand,  and  go  step  by  step 
up  to  them  and  do  them  just  as  you  would  do  if  you  were 
a  carpenter  in  fashioning  something  out  of  a  plank  or  a 
board;  or  if  you  were  a  blacksmith  making  a  horseshoe, 
you  could  not  make  a  horseshoe  by  snapping  a  finger,  nor 
can  you  do  anything  else  in  this  world  in  that  way.  You 
have  to  do  it  by  degrees  and  in  an  orderly  manner.  So 
that  is  one  lesson  you  will  have  to  learn  in  politics.  It  is 
better  that  you  learn  it  here  than  afterwards.  It  is  bet- 
ter that  you  start  out  that  way  than  to  run  half  your 
career  only  to  find  that  you  have  got  to  come  back  and 

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MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

begin  over  again  that  way.  Every  little  while  some  mis- 
erable demagogue  comes  along.  Sometimes  he  is  a  rich 
fellow,  maybe  sometimes  he  is  poor.  If  he  is  an  80  mil- 
lion dollar  demagogue  he  is  the  worst  kind  of  a  dema- 
gogue, I  assure  you,  and  he  will  get  people  to  run  after 
him  and  will  tell  them  not  how  it  should  be  done,  but  that 
he  will  do  it.  People  do  not  stop  to  think  how  he  will  do 
it.  Why,  he  can  only  do  things  through  law  and  through 
the  machinery  of  government.  If  you  need  new  laws 
you  have  to  pass  new  laws.  And  we  very  often  think 
(and  that  is  one  of  the  falsest  notions  in  politics)  that 
we  can  cure  ills  by  passing  laws.  Not  so.  The  distance 
between  the  passing  of  a  law  and  its  observance  is  often 
immeasurable.  No  law  is  worth  anything  unless  it  is 
backed  up  by  the  community.  And  even  then  you  have 
hard  work  to  get  it  enforced.  The  Ten  Commandments 
are  not  too  well  observed  so  far,  are  they?  And  yet  they 
are  backed  up  by  the  community  and  by  all  the  preachers. 
Good  men  in  office  will  produce  good  government  even 
with  bad  laws,  but  bad  men  in  office  will  not  produce 
good  government  with  the  best  of  laws.  Remember  that, 
too.  So  that  the  making  of  laws  is  not  everything.  There 
are  some  people  who  have  an  itch  to  change  the  law  all  the 
time  and  make  a  new  law.  They  think  that  will  do  the 
whole  thing.  There  is  something  the  matter  in  the  Police 
Department.  Forthwith  they  want  a  new  law ;  when  it  is 
not  law  at  all  that  is  wanted,  but  unceasing  work  for  years 
maybe  to  bring  about  the  remedy.  Mr.  Waldo  has 
spoken  of  the  Police  Department.  It  is  a  fair  example. 
Committees  are  sitting  and  advising  Albany  what  laws 
to  pass  because  there  are  a  few  corrupt  policemen.  Why, 
you  cannot  stop  a  grafter  by  passing  a  law.  You  have 
got  to  catch  him  or  stop  him  in  advance.  There  is  no 
other  way.  There  is  a  committee  down  from  the  Legis- 
lature taking  the  views  of  people  on  the  same  subject,  and 
everybody  who  thinks  he  has  a  view  is  very  eager  to  come 
forward  to  give  it ;  and  I  might  say  those  who  haven't  any 
views  at  all  are  eager  to  come  forward  and  air  themselves. 

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MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

And  yet,  What  is  the  trouble?  Why,  it  all  comes  down 
to  a  simple  thing  in  the  Police  Department.  We  have 
been  fighting  it  ever  since  Waldo  came  in  and  before. 
When  I  became  Mayor  the  Commissioner  that  preceded 
him  entered  upon  it  and  we  have  been  at  it  ever  since. 
For  a  long  time  there  have  been  some  corrupt  police  in 
the  city.  A  few  years  ago  there  were  many.  There  were 
heads  of  police  who  were  going  out  millionaires,  one  after 
the  other.  I  do  not  think  anybody  is  becoming  a  million- 
aire under  Waldo.  I  have  not  heard  of  it.  I  doubt  it. 
Things  are  much  better  now  than  they  ever  were  before. 
Mr.  Waldo  spoke  of  the  fixed  posts  and  the  police  out  on 
duty  all  over  the  city  night  and  day,  and  what  he  does  to 
keep  them  there.  Why,  you  people  over  here  (some  live 
maybe  in  Brooklyn,  where  there  are  nearly  two  millions 
of  people,  or  in  Queens,  or  maybe  in  Richmond,  or  in  the 
Bronx),  is  there  any  graft  of  the  police  there?  If  there 
be  any  it  is  an  isolated  case  of  somebody  getting  a  dollar 
or  two.  There  is  no  one  there  to  tempt  them.  You  can 
find  them  all  over  this  great  city  night  and  day  doing 
their  duty  like  clockwork,  ready  for  any  emergency,  or 
to  answer  any  call.  They  are  not  even  tempted.  But 
here  in  Manhattan,  which  some  people  think  is  the  city, 
there  are  two  or  three  districts  where  all  the  gamblers  and 
all  the  harlots  and  all  the  corrupt  people  congregate,  and 
want  to  do  illegal  things,  and  in  these  two  or  three  dis- 
tricts they  are  constantly  bribing  the  police.  And  yet 
from  all  this  hue  and  cry  you  would  think  that  that  was 
general  all  over  this  city.  Why,  it  is  only  local  in  two  or 
three  places,  and  there  we  have  almost  done  away  with  it. 
And  look  at  recent  events.  You  would  think,  I  say,  that 
this  corruption  was  general.  Why,  all  that  has  been  re- 
vealed that  happened  since  I  am  Mayor  was  revealed  by 
the  enforcement  of  the  law  by  Mr.  Waldo,  and  Mr. 
Cropsey  his  predecessor.  All  the  indictments  and  prose- 
cutions have  grown  out  of  two  cases.  First  was  the  case 
of  Rosenthal,  who  was  murdered.  Well,  what  is  his  case  ? 
Why,  during  Mr.  Cropsey's  administration  and  Mr. 

292 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

Waldo's  he  opened  twelve  gambling  places,  one  after  the 
other.  He  had  been  a  gambler  all  his  life.  And  those 
twelve  places  were  taken  possession  of  by  the  police  one 
after  the  other,  under  the  law  of  nuisance,  on  which  basis 
I  put  the  police  after  I  became  Mayor.  The  folly  of 
going  up  and  arresting  a  man  in  a  gambling  house  and 
soberly  coming  down  with  him,  when  the  roulette  wheel 
begins  to  start  before  you  get  to  the  street!  It  is  incon- 
ceivable that  any  one  would  indulge  in  such  folly.  The 
way  we  do  is,  when  we  take  places  like  that,  to  take  pos- 
session of  them  and  hold  them  until  they  are  vacated,  and 
that  you  young  lawyers  will  find  is  perfectly  legal.  They 
are  a  public  nuisance.  Houses  where  gamblers  and  bad 
people  resort  are  public  nuisances,  and  even  citizens  can 
go  and  take  possession  of  them.  But  the  police  are  hired 
for  that  purpose,  and  that  is  the  way  we  do  it.  And 
Rosenthal's  twelve  places  were  closed  one  after  the  other, 
and  the  twelfth  place  was  in  the  hands  of  the  police  for 
three  weeks  the  night  he  was  shot.  They  were  in  posses- 
sion night  and  day.  And  when  his  twelfth  place  was 
taken  away  from  him  he  then  revealed  the  fact  that  a  lieu- 
tenant of  police  guaranteed  him  for  that  twelfth  place 
that  if  he  gave  him  a  certain  amount  of  money  a  week  the 
place  would  have  immunity.  But  did  it  get  immunity? 
No,  not  at  all.  That  lieutenant  of  police  could  not  give 
him  immunity.  The  whole  thing  was  in  the  hands  of  the 
Commissioner  under  the  squad  which  was  organized  for 
that  purpose,  and  he  sent  the  squad  with  the  warrant 
which  had  been  obtained,  and  took  possession  of  the  place ; 
and  that  led  to  all  these  revelations,  forced  by  the  police 
department  itself.  And  yet  you  would  think  that  some- 
body else  did  all  that.  And  we  furnished  all  the  wit- 
nesses, every  witness,  that  convicted  all  these  people, 
every  one  of  them.  The  lieutenant  of  police  was  con- 
victed, and  yet  you  would  think  that  the  police  depart- 
ment was  engaged  in  trying  to  shield  everybody  in  place 
of  stopping  them.  That  is  politics.  Do  not  go  into  that 
sort  of  politics.  Be  a  man  first  and  a  politician  second, 

293 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

and  you  will  come  out  better  in  the  long  run.  The  other 
case  from  which  the  revelations  came  was  the  case  of  Sipp. 
He  kept  another  kind  of  house — a  horrible  house — I 
would  not  describe  it  even  among  men.  And  when  the 
police  took  possession  of  this  house  and  held  it,  then  he 
began  to  reveal  that  he  paid  a  patrolman  or  somebody 
money,  and  these  later  indictments  have  all  come  out  of 
that.  After  revealing  something  he  ran  away,  and  we 
had  him  brought  back;  and  really  we  were  denounced  for 
bringing  him  back.  Such  is  the  state  of  the  times  in 
which  we  tried  to  do  our  duty.  Committees  have  been 
going  on  taking  evidence  of  things  which  happened  under 
Theodore  Roosevelt  when  he  was  Commissioner,  and  since, 
and  the  headlines  of  the  newspapers,  and  even  the  matter 
(after  cutting  all  the  dates  out),  would  indicate  that  they 
were  happening  now.  That  is  the  way  things  are  done. 
I  branched  off  into  that  as  a  mere  illustration.  But  to 
come  back  to  things  that  you  will  have  to  encounter  and 
solve,  take  this  great  question  between  capital  and  labor 
which  is  now  on  the  eve  of  solution.  You  will  have  to  de- 
cide the  employer's  liability.  You  will  have  to  decide  on 
the  laws  to  pension  employees  who  are  hurt  and  maimed 
and  also  those  who  are  too  old  to  work.  The  City  of  New 
York  does  it  now.  We  do  it  in  our  street  cleaning  depart- 
ment, and  in  other  departments.  And  we  now  have  a  gen- 
eral law  for  the  pensioning  of  people  after  a  certain 
age  and  with  certain  infirmities  by  the  city.  I  do  not  men- 
tion the  police  one,  because  that  is  rather  different.  But 
the  city  is  setting  the  example  in  this  matter.  Why  should 
not  the  manufactories  of  the  country  do  likewise?  Do 
you  know  any  reason?  Do  you  know  why  a  man  who  has 
lost  his  leg  or  his  arm  in  the  industrial  pursuits  of  the 
State  should  be  turned  out  to  beg?  I  confess  I  do  not 
know  a  single  reason.  In  Europe  it  is  not  so.  All  over 
Europe — in  Prussia  as  early  as  1847 — these  pension  laws 
have  been  passed  and  have  been  in  force  ever  since.  We 
lag  behind  the  whole  world  in  these  matters.  But  oh,  you 
say,  How  could  that  be  done?  That  would  tax  the  manu- 

294 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

facturer  to  death.  Why,  the  tax  would  be  so  small  that 
they  would  not  know  that  they  were  paying  it.  They  are 
paying  more  now  to  the  indemnity  companies  to  indemnify 
them  against  accidents  than  they  would  pay  under  such  a 
tax,  I  think.  I  certainly  think  they  are  paying  as  much. 
Nor  does  it  fall  on  the  manufacturer.  He  pays  it  in  the 
first  instance,  to  be  sure,  but  it  enters  into  the  cost  of  his 
product,  and  he  gets  it  back  when  he  sells  his  product. 
If  a  wheel  flies  off  an  engine  or  a  machine  is  broken,  he 
has  to  pay  for  that,  doesn't  he?  And  it  enters  into  the 
cost  of  manufacture.  If  a  man's  leg  is  broken  or  ripped 
off  why  should  not  that  also  be  paid  for  on  the  same  prin- 
ciple and  enter  into  the  cost  of  manufacture.  For  a  fa- 
miliar illustration,  you  all  buy  hats.  Why,  the  extra  price 
of  a  hat  under  such  a  system  would  be  so  slight  that  you 
would  not  know  you  were  paying  it.  That  is  the  way  it 
works  out.  The  manufacturer  pays  it.  In  some  coun- 
tries it  is  a  tax  on  wages  simply,  but  the  manufacturer 
generally  pays  the  tax  on  wages,  the  tax  on  the  pay  roll, 
and  that  goes  into  the  state  fund,  and  all  these  people  are 
provided  for.  When  they  become  superannuated  and  un- 
able to  work  any  more  they  do  not  have  to  go  to  the  poor 
house.  If  we  send  them  to  the  poor  house  we  have  to 
take  care  of  them,  don't  we?  Why  not  then  take  care  of 
them  in  some  decent  manner,  these  maimed  and  crippled 
workers,  when  they  are  no  longer  able  to  work?  By  what 
reason  will  any  one  longer  deny  them  the  natural  right  to 
be  supported  by  the  community  whom  they  serve?  The 
community  would  not  feel  it.  It  would  be  for  the  benefit 
of  the  whole  community.  It  simply  enters  into  the  price 
of  all  manufactured  articles.  This  matter  was  discussed 
somewhat  in  the  late  campaign.  The  Progressive  Party 
brought  it  forward  more  than  the  other  two  parties.  It 
is  a  thing  some  of  us  have  been  talking  about  for  a  long 
time.  Then  there  are  other  things  especially  that  you 
young  lawyers  should  begin  to  think  of.  We  have  now 
the  courts  declaring  acts  of  the  Legislature  void  which 
we  passed  to  bring  about  these  economic  things.  Now 

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MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

I  will  give  you  a  few  illustrations  in  this  state,  passing  over 
them  rapidly.  The  first  one  I  will  pick  out  is  the  tobacco- 
tenement  house  case  in  this  city.  The  Legislature  passed 
a  law  that  tobacco  should  not  be  manufactured  in  tene- 
ment houses  in  this  city.  They  passed  it  as  a  health 
measure.  Good  people  who  go  around  among  the  poor 
saw  the  evils  of  having  tobacco  in  small  tenements  poison- 
ing the  children  and  women,  and  making  disagreeable 
odors,  had  it  passed.  But  our  courts  declared  it  void. 
The  ground  they  put  it  on  was  that  it  was  taking  away 
from  this  tenant  in  this  flat  his  liberty  and  his  property. 
It  was  taking  away  from  him  the  liberty  to  do  as  he  liked 
in  his  own  house  and  taking  away  his  property,  inasmuch 
as  it  took  away  one  of  the  uses  of  his  leasehold.  Now  just 
think  of  that.  Why,  if  there  is  any  principle  of  law 
that  we  know  it  is  that  a  man  cannot  use  his  property  as 
he  likes.  He  has  to  use  it  so  as  not  to  injure  the  com- 
munity. I  would  not  like  to  let  people  with  automobiles 
use  them  as  they  like,  nor  people  with  tenement  houses 
either.  That  is  all  subject  to  regulation.  This  comes 
under  what  we  call  the  police  law — health  laws — laws  for 
the  benefit  of  the  community.  But  they  said  it  took  away 
his  liberty  and  his  property,  and  Magna  Charta  says  you 
shall  not  take  away  liberty  or  property  except  by  due 
process  of  law.  I  wonder  if  King  John  or  any  of  the 
barons  thought  that  meant  liberty  to  poison  children  in  a 
tenement  house  with  the  fumes  of  tobacco.  Why,  in  that 
time  they  took  it  literally.  Liberty — a  man  should  not 
be  arrested,  locked  up,  by  the  King,  or  that  his  property 
should  not  be  taken  by  the  King  as  he  marched  through 
the  country  for  military  purposes  or  anything  else.  The 
next  thing  was  the  bake-oven  case.  A  law  was  passed 
that  they  should  not  work  in  these  bake-ovens  more  than 
ten  hours  a  day.  You  happen  to  know  that  it  is  night 
work  as  a  rule  and  in  an  awfully  hot  place.  So  the  Legis- 
lature thought  it  well  in  order  that  we  might  have  healthy 
bread  that  they  should  not  work  there  and  injure  their 
health  any  longer  than  ten  hours  a  day,  and  that  was  de- 

296 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

clared  void  on  the  ground  that  it  took  away  from  the 
baker  his  liberty,  namely,  his  liberty  to  work  the  whole  24 
hours  if  he  wanted  to.  The  other  one  was  the  law  for- 
bidding women  to  be  employed  in  factories  between  9 
o'clock  at  night  and  5  in  the  morning.  It  is  almost  pre- 
posterous to  talk  about  it,  nine  at  night  to  five  in  the  morn- 
ing for  women  to  work  in  factories.  But  they  declared 
that  void  on  the  ground  that  it  deprived  her  of  her  liberty 
to  work  all  night  if  she  saw  fit;  whereas  it  was  a  health 
law,  a  law  to  safeguard  the  women  in  their  health,  and 
thereby  have  healthy  children  and  a  healthy  race.  The 
next  one  was  the  Employers'  Liability  law,  which  I  have 
already  spoken  about;  and  that  was  declared  void  on  the 
same  ground,  that  it  took  the  property  of  the  manufacturer 
without  due  process  of  law.  Magna  Charta  was  brought 
in  again  and  the  Constitution  of  the  State.  Why,  it  didn't 
take  his  property  at  all.  As  I  have  already  told  you,  if 
he  paid  the  tax  it  went  into  the  cost  of  manufacture,  and 
he  got  it  back  in  the  price  of  the  articles.  They  are  pass- 
ing one  in  the  Congress  now,  and  no  doubt  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States  will  declare  it  valid.  The 
two  other  cases  that  I  have  mentioned  to  you  are  the  ones 
with  regard  to  the  employment  of  minors.  That  statute 
forbade  children  under  14  years  of  age  being  employed  in 
factories.  It  simply  forbade  them  being  employed  at  all, 
and  made  a  severe  penalty  for  employing  them.  And  yet 
when  the  cases  came  up  in  court  the  courts  said,  Yes,  the 
employers  are  forbidden  to  employ  them.  Nevertheless, 
the  child  cannot  recover  if  he  was  negligent,  if  he  got  too 
near  the  machine,  if  he  put  his  hand  into  it,  if  he  fell  into 
it.  I  tried  a  case  myself  when  a  judge  where  the  boy 
went  up  on  a  ladder  and  fell  down  into  the  machine,  and 
on  appeal  they  said  he  had  no  business  up  on  the  ladder, 
and  he  would  not  have  been  hurt  if  he  had  stayed  where 
he  was  put — j  ust  as  though  the  law  did  not  mean  what  it 
said,  that  it  forbade  him  to  be  there  at  all,  and  to  allow 
him  to  be  there  at  all  was  what  caused  the  accident.  The 
other  law  was  requiring  all  machines  to  be  guarded  or 

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MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

muzzled.  The  law  prescribed  that  they  must  be  muzzled 
by  the  manufacturer,  and  yet  when  a  man  was  hurt  by  get- 
ting into  an  unmuzzled  cogwheel,  they  said  by  working- 
there  and  seeing  it  was  unmuzzled  he  took  the  risk,  and 
therefore  he  could  not  recover.  Took  the  risk?  Why, 
what  could  he  do.  He  had  to  live.  The  manufacturers 
could  all  leave  them  off,  and  everybody  would  have  to 
work  and  take  the  risk.  And  yet  there  is  a  statute  requir- 
ing that  all  these  machines  be  muzzled.  Now  you  young 
men  have  to  meet  all  these  economic  and  industrial  things, 
and  I  mention  a  few  of  them  to  you  to-night.  I  have  just 
skimmed  over  it.  I  just  want  to  open  up  your  minds  to 
things  that  confront  you,  and  that  are  now  on  the  eve  of 
solution.  Fifteen  years  from  now  they  will  all  be  solved, 
not  by  me,  and  those  who  live  with  me,  but  by  you  young 
men.  That  I  am  absolutely  certain  of.  Just  as  soon 
as  you  get  these  things  in  your  minds  you  will  solve  them. 
Now  the  last  thing  in  Mr.  Trimble's  letter  was  "  The 
chief  obstacle  to  good  government  in  the  city."  The 
chief  obstacle,  gentlemen,  is  a  corrupt  press.  There  is 
nothing  that  confronts  the  American  people  in  some  parts 
of  this  country  which  requires  a  remedy  more  than  the 
license  of  the  press.  Those  put  in  office  by  you  have  got 
to  submit  to  abuse  day  after  day,  year  after  year,  how- 
ever honest  or  however  they  are  striving  to  do  their  duty. 
Falsehood,  lying  and  abuse  day  after  day.  If  you  say 
anything  about  them,  why,  they  are  awfully  thin  skinned, 
you  know.  They  feel  it  right  off.  I  do  not  say  that  the 
entire  press  here  are  that  way,  but  we  certainly  have  some 
that  are  that  way;  some  in  the  hands  of  demagogues  and 
scamps — you  can  call  them  nothing  else.  For  instance, 
we  have  had  the  subways  under  way  here  ever  since  I  came 
in  as  Mayor.  We  took  the  matter  up  with  the  resolve  to 
solve  it  and  to  solve  it  in  the  best  way  we  possibly  could. 
My  associates  are  honest,  intelligent  men.  They  had  no 
purpose  in  the  world  except  to  do  this  thing  right.  And 
yet  we  had  no  sooner  entered  upon  it  than  certain  news- 
papers here  laid  down  the  manner  in  which  we  should  do 

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MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

it,  and  because  we  didn't  see  it  our  duty  to  do  it  in  the 
way  they  told  us  we  must  do  it,  why,  for  two  long  years 
we  have  had  to  endure  the  abuse  of  these  scoundrels.  I 
do  not  hesitate  to  say  that  they  are  scoundrels.  That  does 
not  include  all  the  newspaper  proprietors  here  by  any 
means,  but  you  know  whom  it  includes,  unless  you  don't 
read  these  filthy  papers  at  all.  We  held  conferences  in 
which  this  great  matter  was  discussed  from  day  to  day,  but 
we  would  leave  the  City  Hall  only  to  see  these  newspapers 
held  up  by  the  newsboys  with  the  great  headlines:  "  The 
Subway  Steal,"  and  the  "  Subway  Deal,"  and  the  "  Sub- 
way Job,"  and  the  city  being  sold  out  to  Tom  Ryan,  who 
has  no  more  to  do  with  it  than  the  man  in  the  moon  by  the 
way.  The  city  being  "  turned  over  to  Morgan  &  Com- 
pany." The  city  "  being  looted  by  Belmont,"  and  so  on, 
who  by  the  way  also  has  not  the  slightest  thing  to  do  with 
the  matter.  And  it  has  gone  on  for  two  years  in  just  that 
sort  of  way.  One  of  the  largest  things  in  the  whole 
world  is  this  subway  business,  in  point  of  engineering,  in 
point  of  legal  difficulties  and  financial  difficulties.  It  is 
the  most  difficult  problem  on  the  face  of  the  earth.  And 
we  have  been  working  away  on  that,  only  to  endure  this 
abuse  from  day  to  day.  Two  days  ago  we  had  the  final 
hearing  in  the  Board  of  Estimate  and  the  room  was  filled 
by  respectable  people.  But  five  poor  people,  against 
whom  I  desire  to  say  nothing — maybe  they  were  mental 
defectives — passed  before  us  comparing  us  to  Boss  Tweed, 
and  warning  us  that  this  robbery  should  not  go  on,  and, 
in  the  language  of  one  of  them,  that  this  rotten  contract 
should  not  be  permitted,  and  that  we  were  a  band  of 
thieves  as  one  of  them  said.  To  all  of  which  we  listened 
in  patience  because  it  was  as  nothing  compared  to  what 
these  vile  scoundrels  who  own  these  newspapers  had  said 
of  us  for  two  years  continuously.  Why,  they  provoke 
these  people  to  do  it.  They  provoke  people  to  physic- 
ally assassinate  you,  let  alone  assassinating  your  character. 
Roosevelt  was  assassinated  in  the  last  campaign  by  these 
scoundrelly  people.  They  provoked  it.  The  fellow 

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MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

pulled  their  editorials  out  of  his  pocket  to  show  why  he 
was  doing  it.  The  moral  assassin  is  worse  than  the  physi- 
cal assassin,  especially  these  poor  mentally  deficient  peo- 
ple who  read  these  things  and  take  them  seriously.  Now 
I  mention  this  thing  for  the  sake  of  my  associates.  I 
have  now  been  a  long  time  in  public  matters.  I  entered 
political  matters  when  I  was  a  young  fellow,  about  the  age 
of  some  of  you  now  in  this  room,  and  I  have  been  at  it 
nearly  ever  since  in  one  way  and  another.  For  many 
years  on  the  outside.  I  had  no  desire  to  hold  office  at  all. 
I  enjoyed  the  work  on  the  outside.  And  I  have  got  to 
that  point  where  nothing  said  about  me  affects  me  much. 
Nothing  that  could  happen  to  me  would  affect  me  much. 
I  think  I  would  be  satisfied  under  most  any  circumstances. 
I  think  we  all  ought  to  feel  that  way,  especially  if  you  are 
going  into  political  life,  young  men.  Take  things  as  they 
come.  Whatever  God's  will  mav  be  of  me,  I  am  content. 

v 

Just  say  that  over  and  over  to  yourselves  if  you  are  going 
into  public  life,  because  you  will  have  much  to  endure,  be- 
cause you  will  have,  I  suppose,  newspapers  of  that  kind 
still  left  maybe  when  you  begin  your  careers,  and  they  will 
tell  you  what  to  do  and  if  you  don't  do  it  they  will  try  to 
blackmail  you  into  doing  it.  They  will  try  to  coerce  you 
into  doing  it.  If  you  don't  do  it  they  will  abuse  you. 
Worse  than  that,  scoundrels  will  come  to  you  with  arti- 
cles written  up  about  you  and  ask  you  to  read  them  and 
say  they  have  some  intention  of  publishing  them  in  such 
and  such  a  paper.  All  these  things  are  resorted  to.  And 
some  of  them  say  (the  thing  happened  to  me  when  I  was 
a  younger  man  than  I  am  now  with  regard  to  a  paper  here 
in  this  city),  how  much  is  it  worth  to  you  not  to  publish 
it  in  that  paper.  I  wrote  a  letter  to  the  proprietor  of  that 
paper  but  never  got  a  word  back  from  him.  He  was 
probably  no  better  than  the  fellow  who  offered  me  the 
article.  You  will  encounter  all  these  things,  but  you  will 
have  to  stand  up  against  them.  There  is  nobody  on  this 
earth  more  despicable  than  the  man  who  comes  into  public 
office  and  gives  way  to  newspaper  dictation.  That  is  not 

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MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

government.  The  same  may  be  said  of  a  man  who  gives 
way  to  clamor  of  any  kind,  especially  if  it  is  newspaper 
clamor  or  created  by  newspapers.  Why,  they  have  the 
effrontery  to  lay  down  what  you  must  do,  but  under  your 
official  oath  you  think  another  course  is  the  preferable 
one,  and  then  you  have  got  to  be  called  a  thief.  Your 
children  in  school  and  in  colleges  like  this,  and  your  daugh- 
ters in  boarding  school,  will  have  to  see  these  things  in  the 
papers  about  you,  and  be  twitted  about  it.  It  is  a  condi- 
tion that  you  young  men  coming  into  public  life  will  have 
to  confront  and  do  away  with.  Men  are  staying  out  of 
public  life  on  account  of  it,  and  men  who  are  in  public 
life,  sooner  than  to  be  the  victims  of  these  scoundrels  and 
have  their  daughters  in  school  and  their  sons  and  their 
wives  mortified  day  after  day,  are  willing  to  get  out. 
And  it  is  so  in  several  parts  of  this  country,  and  it  is  time 
that  it  was  stopped.  And  I  will  say  to  you  young  men 
that  that  also  is  a  mission  that  you  have.  You  can  do  a 
great  deal  now  in  your  own  way  in  that  respect.  It  is  an 
awful  thing.  Why,  my  associates  are  as  incapable  of 
stealing  as  any  man  on  this  earth,  or  of  doing  a  wrong 
thing.  And  yet  it  is  a  steal  and  a  deal  and  a  job,  and  the 
turning  of  the  city  over  to  private  interests,  and  so  on, 
without  a  word  of  truth.  The  matter  is  done  entirely 
for  the  interest  of  the  city.  I  suppose  you  young  men 
all  know  what  the  subway  contract  is.  I  will  just  tell 
you  in  three  words  in  closing.  We  have  a  subway 
here  now.  It  was  built  entirely  by  the  money  of 
this  city.  No  man  put  a  dollar  into  it,  except  the  city. 
And  when  we  came  to  extend  the  subways  the  question  was 
whether  we  would  build  an  independent  system  or  whether 
we  should  extend  this  present  subway  so  as  to  have  a  single 
5  cent  fare  all  over  the  city.  If  we  built  an  independent 
system  here  there  would  be  two  roads  and  two  fares,  and 
to  transfer  here  and  there  you  would  have  to  pay  an  addi- 
tional 5  cents.  In  looking  the  whole  field  over  we  saw  the 
right  thing  to  do  was  to  extend  our  present  system  and 
we  went  about  to  do  that.  The  city  lacked  funds  to  do  all 

301 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

that.  But  the  city  has  to  build  it.  And  the  city  owns  it 
as  soon  as  it  is  built.  The  city  has  absolute  ownership  of 
the  subways.  But  it  does  not  operate  them.  We  lease 
them  out  for  operation.  And  not  having  money  enough, 
or  credit  enough  to  do  this  gigantic  work,  which  takes 
nearly  $325,000,000,  the  operating  companies  said  that 
they  would  advance  to  the  city  what  the  city  lacked,  and 
we  were  only  too  glad  to  do  it.  The  city  can  only  borrow 
up  to  10  per  cent,  of  its  real  estate  valuations,  and  that 
limit  is  almost  reached.  It  would  take  us  25  years  to  com- 
plete the  work  of  building,  but  the  operating  companies 
said  we  will  put  in  part  of  the  money.  And  then  these 
newspapers  said  that  on  that  account  they  were  going  to 
own  the  roads.  Why,  under  the  statute  they  cannot  build 
or  own  them.  But  they  can  advance  the  money  to  the 
city  to  build,  and  the  city  is  glad  to  get  it  because  the  city 
is  short  of  funds  to  do  it.  And  they  put  the  equipment  in 
entirely.  And  yet  some  people  are  calling  on  the  city  not 
only  to  build  but  to  equip  and  to  operate  when  we  have 
not  half  money  enough  to  build,  let  alone  equip.  These 
companies  put  their  money  in.  But  does  the  city  obligate 
itself  to  pay  them  back?  Not  one  dollar.  We  refused. 
We  said  to  them,  if  you  put  this  money  in  you  must  de- 
pend on  the  earnings  of  the  roads  to  get  it  back.  You 
must  depend  on  the  earnings  of  the  roads  for  every  dol- 
lar of  interest  and  sinking  fund.  The  city  will  agree  to 
pay  nothing  whatever.  And  that  is  the  way  the  thing  is. 
Out  of  the  earnings  they  are  paid  the  interest  and  sink- 
ing fund,  and  in  the  same  way  the  city  is  paid  interest  and 
sinking  fund  on  its  money,  the  part  it  puts  in.  And  all 
over  that  is  divided  equally  between  the  contracting  com- 
panies and  the  city.  Now  that  is  the  whole  contract.  And 
yet  maybe  some  of  you  think  that  the  subways  are  to  be 
built  and  owned  by  these  companies.  Why,  they  have  to 
turn  their  checks  over  to  the  city  month  by  month  to  build. 
Look  at  the  papers  and  see  the  city  advertising  for  con- 
tracts to  build.  We  are  building  one  in  Broadway  already. 
And  it  is  going  on,  and  also  those  in  the  Bronx  and  in 

302 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

Queens.  The  city  advertises  and  gives  out  the  contracts 
and  builds  them.  The  companies  which  operate  them  said 
to  the  city,  we  will  put  up  what  you  lack,  so  as  to  have 
them  built  speedily  and  be  ready  for  operation.  They 
have  to  rely  on  the  earnings  for  the  interest,  sinking  fund 
and  principal — the  sinking  fund  of  course  pays  the  prin- 
cipal in  about  40  years,  you  can  figure  that  up  for  your- 
selves. And  yet  look  at  the  vile  abuse,  the  charges  of 
thievery  and  jobbery  and  dishonesty  that  my  associates 
have  had  to  endure.  And  some  of  them  young  men. 
Some  of  them  not  so  much  older  than  some  of  you  here, 
starting  out  in  life  with  such  abuse.  You  think  probably 
that  we  should  hire  lawyers  to  bring  libel  suits  every  day. 
Well  there  are  none  of  us  who  can  afford  that.  When 
some  80  millionaire  scamp  owns  a  newspaper  he  can  hire 
lawyers  by  the  dozen  or  by  the  score,  but  you  cannot ;  you 
have  not  got  the  funds.  And  I  have  not  seen  any  great 
eagerness  on  the  part  of  the  citizens  of  this  city  to  come 
forward  to  make  up  a  fund  to  enable  us  to  do  so  so  far. 
They  look  on.  And  yet  I  am  perfectly  satisfied  that  we 
have  the  good  will  of  the  community.  And  that  they 
understand  that  we  have  done  right  and  done  the  honest 
thing.  Now  you  are  going  into  politics,  some  of  you,  and 
you  will  have  to  prepare  yourself  for  all  these  things.  You 
will  have  to  be  men  of  iron.  If  you  have  a  weak  heart  you 
will  be  dead  in  a  short  time.  If  you  are  nervous  they  will 
kill  you  sure.  Some  people  have  to  go  to  bed  over  these 
things.  But  after  a  while  we  grow  used  to  it.  I  cannot 
say  we  grow  used  to  it,  that  would  be  going  too  far.  If 
a  man  was  a  bachelor  with  nobody  dependent  on  him  he 
might  grow  used  to  it,  but  a  man  with  a  wife  and  sons  and 
daughters,  I  do  not  think  he  can  ever  grow  used  to  it,  be- 
cause he  has  to  think  of  them. 

Now,  young  men,  I  wish  you  well.  I  have  said  more 
than  I  intended  to  say  to  you,  but  if  you  start  out  as  I 
said  to  you  in  the  beginning,  with  settled  habits,  with 
studious  habits,  and  with  a  purpose  and  with  a  resolve  to 
be  steady  workers  and  persevere,  you  can  be  just  as  sure 

303 


MAYOR  GAYNOR'S  LETTERS  AND  SPEECHES 

as  you  are  here  that  you  will  come  out  all  right  in  the  end 
and  that  the  end  won't  be  very  far  off  either. 


Conditions  in  New  York 

(Remarks  at  the  East  Side  Club,  New  York  City,  November  12, 

1912.) 

Mr.  Chairman  and  Gentlemen  of  the  East  Side  Club : 
I  certainly  hope,  more  than  that,  I  know  from  the  temper 
of  you,  that  you  will  do  much  good  in  this  part  of  the  city. 
This  programme  of  having  city  officials  come  here  and 
explain  the  working  of  their  departments  is  capital.  I 
suppose  that  is  why  you  called  me  first  to  start  it.  So  keep 
it  up.  I  will  not  say  much  about  my  own  department  and 
about  myself.  There  are  other  people  saying  enough 
about  me  without  my  saying  anything.  Maybe  I  would 
make  it  worse  than  they  do  if  I  went  into  it.  The  card 
here  says  the  club  is  appointed  to  aid  in  securing  perma- 
nent good  government  for  the  city  of  New  York  through 
the  election  and  appointment  of  honest  public  officers. 
That  expresses  the  whole  thing.  And  Mr.  Lustgarten 
says  it  is  made  up  of  both  parties.  That  is  a  slip  of  the 
tongue.  He  ought  to  say  all  parties,  because  we  all  know 
that  there  are  now  three  big  ones.  And  I  understand  also 
that  a  good  many  others  are  loose,  especially  down  in  this 
part  of  the  city.  That  means  I  suppose  that  on  election 
day  you  will  not  vote  as  mere  machines,  that  you  will  not 
vote  as  the  mere  automaton  of  any  party  or  any  party 
leader  but  as  you  think  you  ought  to  vote.  I  must  confess 
it  has  always  been  astonishing  to  me  that  in  local  govern- 
ment people  are  so  reluctant  to  vote  otherwise  than  accord- 
ing to  their  national  party  and  national  politics.  Now  I 
would  like  to  know  what  national  politics  have  to  do  with 
local  aff airs  anywhere  in  this  country  much  less  in  the  city 
of  New  York.  And  yet  I  hear  men  all  the  time  saying, 
'  Why,  I  didn't  vote  the  Republican  ticket,  or  the  Demo- 
cratic ticket,  at  the  last  municipal  election,  because  it  was 

304 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

not  my  party."  And  some  of  them  go  further  and  say, 
"  My  grandfather  was  a  Republican  or  a  Democrat,  and 
my  father  was,  and  I  am,  and  I  always  will  be."  What  a 
howling  wilderness  is  in  the  head  of  such  people  as  that, 
especially  when  they  apply  it  to  local  affairs.  How  does 
any  man  know  that  in  national  affairs  he  will  remain  in 
the  same  party  till  he  dies  ?  Only  a  man  that  knows  noth- 
ing says  any  such  thing  as  that.  We  have  a  Bull  Moose 
party  now,  made  up  in  six  months  or  less,  and  half  of  those 
who  are  in  it  never  dreamed  of  being  in  it,  I  suppose,  until 
the  election  was  coming  on.  So  that  your  non-partisan- 
ship to  be  effective  has  to  be  intelligent.  Why,  in  national 
politics  a  man  that  is  a  Republican  has  to  stand  up  to  his 
principles  on  election  day ;  and  the  man  who  is  a  Democrat 
has  to  stand  up  like  a  man  to  his.  But  when  a  local  elec- 
tion comes  around,  why  on  earth  should  he  vote  according 
to  his  national  politics?  No  reason  when  you  vote  for  an 
alderman  or  a  mayor  or  any  other  local  officer  who  has 
simply  local  duties  to  perform  and  has  nothing  to  do  with 
national  politics  whatever.  So  we  ought  to  have  national 
politics  standing  alone ;  state  politics  standing  alone ;  local 
politics  standing  alone,  absolutely  alone.  And  for  that 
reason  in  1894  the  constitution  of  this  state  enacted  that 
all  local  elections  should  be  in  years  when  there  was  no 
national  election,  and  the  Legislature  last  year  passed  a 
law  separating  the  state  ballot  from  the  national  ballot  in 
order  to  give  the  people  a  chance  to  vote  independently. 
I  do  not  know  how  they  came  to  do  that,  but  they  did  it. 
Some  of  them  were  bemoaning  it  after  they  did  it,  and  I 
believe  they  did  a  good  job  without  knowing  it.  And 
they  had  better  leave  it  alone.  People  knew  how  to  vote 
anyhow,  and  they  vote  as  they  liked  anyhow.  Mr.  Lust- 
garten  has  spoken  of  the  talk  in  past  years  about  the  East 
Side.  Every  infamy  and  every  crime  was  attributed  to 
this  locality  in  the  city.  I  do  not  want  to  take  anything 
to  myself,  but  I  believe  I  stood  up  against  it  from  the 
start.  I  said  before  I  ran  for  office  and  I  have  said  it  often 
since  that  the  people  down  here  were  just  as  intelligent 

305 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

and  just  as  moral,  and  maybe  a  little  more  so,  as  in  some 
other  parts  of  the  city  where  the  people  think  they  are  a 
great  deal  better.  But  there  was  such  a  patronizing  air 
about  things  down  here.  People  came  slumming  and  peek- 
ing in  your  windows,  seeing  how  you  lived  and  what  you 
ate,  and  so  on;  called  to  see  what  your  wife  was  doing; 
and  she  knew  her  business  maybe  better  than  they  did. 
Their  more  fit  place  probably  would  have  been  to  stay  home 
and  take  care  of  their  own  house.  You  know,  I  suppose, 
that  there  is  crime  everywhere.  There  is  immorality  every- 
where. And  vice  everywhere.  But  there  are  certain 
preachers  and  others  in  this  town  whose  head  when  you 
mention  vice  is  filled  with  only  one  thing,  one  nasty  vice. 
How  their  head  is  so  filled  with  it  I  don't  know.  There 
certainly  must  be  some  reason  for  it.  When  I  say  vice 
I  include  all  the  vices,  and  I  do  not  forget  bearing  false 
witness  against  your  neighbor  either,  or  lying  about  pub- 
lic officials.  I  include  them  all.  But  the  proportion  of 
vice  down  here  is  not  greater  than  elsewhere.  The  statis- 
tics show  that.  You  have  a  great  population  here.  Your 
chairman  said  one  million  people  live  down  here.  I  hadn't 
thought  it  so  large  as  that.  That  is  an  awful  congestion 
of  people.  The  tendency  of  people  seems  to  be  to  get  to- 
gether, to  get  their  heads  as  close  together  as  they  can,  and 
then  complain  of  congestion.  If  all  the  people  on  this 
globe  were  brought  here  to  the  city  and  stood  up  on  their 
feet,  each  one  would  have  two  square  feet,  I  believe.  All 
the  people  of  this  earth  could  stand  up  in  the  city  of  New 
York,  and  have  I  think  two  square  feet  to  shuffle  around  in. 
And  all  the  people  of  this  earth  could  be  brought  down 
into  Texas  and  get  three  acres  each.  So  you  see  there  are 
not  so  many  people  on  this  earth  compared  with  the  space 
of  this  earth  after  all.  Why  they  all  want  to  get  down 
here  on  the  East  Side  is  more  than  I  can  understand.  It 
must  be  a  pretty  good  place.  And  crime  is  incident  to 
a  community  like  this  as  to  all  others.  There  is  crime  out 
in  the  country.  There  is  immorality  in  the  country. 
There  is  theft  in  the  country.  I  live  in  the  country  half 

306 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

the  year,  so  I  can  talk  by  the  book;  and  I  was  brought 
up  also  in  the  country.  So  that  the  saying  that  we  often 
hear  that  God  made  the  city,  but  the  devil  made  the  small 
town,  has  some  truth  in  it.  You  have  had  down  here 
lately  a  cropping  out  of  crime  that  has  attracted  the  at- 
tention of  everybody,  and  in  my  judgment  altogether  too 
much  has  been  made  of  it.  A  handful  of  criminals  get  to- 
gether and  do  a  murder.  Why  that  happens  all  over  the 
world.  One  member  of  the  police  force  out  of  ten  thou- 
sand was  found  to  be  in  with  these  criminals  and  taking 
graft  from  them,  and  making  money  out  of  the  community 
with  them ;  and  the  murder  was  the  result.  And  you  would 
think  to  hear  some  people  talk,  and  you  would  think  from 
reading  some  of  our  dirty  low-lived  newspapers  that  not 
only  was  this  section  here  of  the  city,  but  the  whole  city 
reeking  with  vice  and  crime;  whereas  the  contrary  is  the 
case.  The  alderman  of  old  London  who  is  to  be  the  next 
Lord  Mayor  was  in  to  see  me  not  long  ago,  and  he  said 
the  thing  that  attracted  him  most  of  all  in  this  city — and 
he  walked  all  over  it  out  of  curiosity  night  and  day — was 
the  absolute  outward  propriety  of  the  streets  everywhere 
that  he  went  in  all  sections  of  the  city.  He  said  he  never 
in  his  life,  and  he  had  travelled  all  over  Europe,  had  seen 
so  few  evil  women  in  the  street,  so  few  drunken  people,  so 
few  disorderly  people.  He  said  it  was  the  most  orderly 
city  that  he  ever  saw  in  the  streets  and  outwardly.  Why, 
I  told  him  we  all  knew  that.  But  he  probably  had  been 
reading  some  of  our  dirty  newspapers  who  are  always  de- 
filing this  city.  Now  the  mere  fact  that  a  lieutenant  of 
police  went  wrong  astonished  me  none.  Why  it  did  not 
start  the  circulation  in  my  blood.  I  would  not  have  been 
surprised  if  some  of  the  top  people  in  the  police  force  had 
been  caught  at  it,  but  it  was  a  lieutenant.  There  was  noth- 
ing extraordinary  at  all.  And  yet  this  city  has  been  belied 
all  over  the  earth  as  having  a  police  force  made  up  entirely 
of  grafters,  clubbers,  and  disorderly  characters  of  all  kinds. 
Well  I  have  done  what  I  could  to  stop  that  sort  of  thing 
in  all  the  departments,  and  especially  in  the  police  depart- 
so? 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

ment;  and  I  believe  I  have  done  more  in  the  police  de- 
partment than  in  any  other.  I  was  told  here  to-night  that 
the  police  in  this  section  of  the  city  are  very  different  from 
what  they  were  a  few  years  ago.  I  was  told  that  they 
mind  their  own  business  and  do  not  meddle  with  orderly 
people.  I  was  told  that  they  no  longer  smash  into  places 
and  intrude  into  places  and  thereby  collect  graft  out  of 
people  who  do  not  want  to  have  their  doors  smashed  in. 
And  I  was  glad  to  hear  it.  Some  of  the  people  did  not 
know  what  I  was  driving  at. 

I  am  sorry  to  say  that  some  clergymen  when  I  have 
said  that  this  city  must  first  of  all  have  outward  order 
and  decency  preserved,  hold  me  up  as  upholding  all  se- 
cret crime  and  indecency.  Rabbi  Wise  you  know  gives 
me  a  whack  now  and  then.  He  is  a  charitable  man.  He 
is  a  preacher  of  God.  And  he  ought  to  know  what  charity 
is.  I  have  heard  him  speak.  I  do  not  wish  to  say  any- 
thing against  him.  But  I  have  all  my  life  distrusted 
rhetoricians.  People  who  have  got  tongues  like  his  I  do 
not  take  much  stock  in.  They  talk  so  much  that  their 
mouths  get  around  on  the  sides  of  their  faces.  And  so 
with  others.  They  think  nothing  of  saying  the  most  cruel 
things  about  a  public  official,  cruel  things  and  mean  things. 
But  do  they  ever  come  in  to  help  ?  No,  never.  They  have 
never  extended  their  hand  to  me  and  said  "  I  will  help 
you."  Not  a  bit. 

They  think  that  the  police  ought  to  go  around  clubbing 
everybody  and  doing  as  they  see  fit,  but  I  disagree  with 
that.  I  tried  to  reduce  the  police  force  to  order.  I  have 
tried  to  cut  it  off  from  all  graft.  I  know  that  I  have  suc- 
ceeded at  least  two-thirds,  and  I  think  I  will  succeed  three 
thirds  before  I  get  through.  But  to  have  to  do  things 
against  the  ill  will  of  people  that  ought  to  help  you  is  a 
painful  thing.  Some  clergyman  named  Carson  the  other 
night  made  a  terrible  philippic  against  me,  literally  flayed 
me  alive,  held  me  up  as  a  vicious  man  and  all  that.  I  do 
not  know  what  my  neighbors  who  have  seen  me  coming  and 
going  out  for  twenty-five  years,  think  when  they  read  such 

308       • 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

stuff  from  such  people,  not  to  mention  what  is  printed  in 
the  newspapers.  But  I  am  here  yet,  and  I  am  pretty  well 
off  and  have  some  respect,  as  I  perceive,  and  maybe  I 
stand  it  better  than  they  do.  Maybe  they  are  going  down 
while  they  are  talking  and  maybe  their  talk  is  really  lifting 
me  up  a  little.  At  all  events  I  have  no  ill  will  against  any 
of  them. 

I  have  tried  to  give  a  good  honest  government  to  the 
city  and  I  am  satisfied  with  that.  I  have  tried  to  rule  the 
city  on  high  ground.  I  have  not  allowed  the  city  govern- 
ment in  any  branch,  as  every  head  of  department  will  tes- 
tify to  you,  to  be  controlled  or  influenced  by  anybody  on 
the  outside.  No  politicians  or  boss  or  organization  has 
any  control  whatever  over  this  government,  whether  it  be 
the  Tenement  House  Department,  the  Dock  Depart- 
ment, the  Charities  Department,  or  any  other  part  of  the 
city  government.  Now  that  means  that  I  must  get 
whacked  a  good  deal.  When  I  read  on  the  card  that  your 
object  is  to  promote  good  city  government  I  was  saying 
to  myself:  "  After  all  isn't  a  man  in  office  as  Mayor  here 
in  a  more  comfortable  position  if  he  is  the  mere  exponent 
of  some  political  party.  Wouldn't  it  be  easier  for  me  to 
sit  at  the  City  Hall  and  turn  the  government  pretty  well 
over  to  Sam  Koenig,  or  somebody  else,  and  go  on  my  way 
each  day  and  when  anything  happened  I  have  at  least  a 
big  party  to  back  me  up  and  fight  with  me." 

Now,  it  seems  when  anything  happens  I  have  nobody 
to  stand  up  with  me,  except  the  people  in  general,  and 
very  often  they  are  too  busy  to  bother  their  heads  very 
much  with  it.  The  malignant  ones  seize  hold  of  anything 
that  happens.  More  than  that,  they  go  around  and  dig 
pitfalls  for  me  to  step  into,  and  in  that  way  my  road  is 
much  harder  and  rougher  than  it  would  be  if  I  had  some 
solid  party  back  of  me.  I  admit  that.  There  is  no  doubt 
about  it  whatever.  My  course  would  be  much  easier  if 
I  reposed  on  some  party  and  when  I  wanted  to  appoint  a 
tenement  house  commissioner  I  could  send  word  up  to 
the  leader  of  that  party  to  send  me  down  a  tenement  house 

309 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

commissioner  and  when  I  wanted  a  police  commissioner 
I  could  do  the  same  thing,  and  then  if  anything  happened 
in  the  tenement  house  or  the  police  departments  I  would 
have  a  party  to  stand  up  and  fight  with  me.  So  there  is 
something  to  have  a  party  back  of  you,  but  I  must  say 
that  would  prostitute  government  in  a  way  that  I  could 
not  countenance.  So  when  I  was  nominated  for  Mayor  I 
was  asked  no  questions.  It  was  perfectly  well  known  what 
my  ideas  were  on  that  subject,  and  after  I  became  Mayor, 
well,  people  made  suggestions  to  me  and  I  made  the  ap- 
pointments all  my  own  and  selected  them  all,  and  those 
who  didn't  get  what  they  wanted  said,  "  Well  you  are 
Mayor  and  you  must  do  what  you  think  best."  So  I  have 
had  no  growl,  no  quarrel  with  anybody.  I  must  say  they 
have  all  been  reasonable  with  me.  I  must  say  that.  If 
they  didn't  get  what  they  wanted  they  certainly  have  been 
reasonable  and  handsome  toward  me.  I  never  will  say 
otherwise  than  that. 

Now,  the  order  of  this  community  down  here  is  never 
illustrated  better  than  on  Election  Day.  There  was  one 
candidate  for  Governor  this  year  who  was  very  apprehen- 
sive that  this  whole  East  Side  was  going  to  reek  with  cor- 
ruption on  Election  Day.  He  sent  people  to  me  to  beg 
me  to  put  police  in  every  poll  down  here,  and  extra  police 
all  through  here,  and  if  I  didn't  do  it  they  said  there  was 
going  to  be  the  greatest  rioting  and  illegal  voting  down 
here  that  was  ever  known.  I  told  them  I  didn't  believe  it. 
I  also  received  a  letter  from  Dr.  Ratner  whom  I  do  not 
know,  and  he  gave  it  to  me  pretty  hard,  and  he  published 
his  letter,  and  he  said  I  ought  to  put  police  in  every  poll 
to  put  out  everybody  who  had  no  right  to  vote.  I  wrote 
him  that  the  police  had  no  right  to  decide  who  should  vote 
and  who  should  not,  that  we  elected  election  officers  and 
the  law  clothed  them  with  the  power  of  conducting  the 
elections,  and  that  the  police  had  no  power  to  say  to  any 
man  "  You  cannot  vote."  I  told  them  they  did  that  sort 
of  thing  in  Russia  and  in  Mexico.  I  did  not  know  then 
that  he  was  a  Russian  himself  or  I  would  not  have  used 

310 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

that  word.  But  it  seemed  that  I  hit  the  nail  right  on  the 
head.  He  wanted  me  to  do  what  he  had  seen  done  in 
Russia,  I  suppose ;  put  the  soldiers  and  the  police  right  in 
the  polls  and  when  a  man  that  was  going  to  vote  the  wrong 
way  came  along  to  throw  him  out  in  the  street.  That 
was  done  in  the  city  of  New  York  for  a  long  time.  And 
it  was  terrible  that  I  would  not  allow  the  police  to  go  in 
the  polling  places.  I  made  them  stand  out  in  the  street 
where  they  belong,  and  the  strange  thing  is  that  they  did 
not  find  out  until  this  year  that  I  did  that.  Every  election 
that  has  occurred  in  New  York  since  I  have  been  Mayor 
has  been  conducted  in  the  same  way.  I  had  the  order  is- 
sued that  the  police  should  stay  out  on  the  sidewalk  and 
walk  up  and  down  in  a  100  foot  space  in  front  of  the  polls. 
If  the  election  officers  wanted  anybody  arrested  the  law 
gives  them  the  power  to  arrest  them  on  the  spot.  Then 
all  they  have  to  do  is  to  call  this  policeman  and  say,  "  Take 
this  man  to  a  magistrate."  But  to  put  policemen  in  poll- 
ing places  was  never  known  in  this  world  until  it  was  done 
here. 

Every  man  is  a  sovereign  on  Election  Day.  He 
doesn't  want  to  rub  up  against  brass  buttons  at  the  door 
when  he  goes  in  to  vote.  The  law  does  not  permit  any- 
body to  interfere  with  him  from  the  time  he  leaves  his 
house  until  after  he  comes  out  of  the  polling  place.  Do 
you  know  that?  And  yet  I  have  seen  election  officers  in 
this  city  issue  the  day  before  Election  threats  that  they 
were  going  to  arrest  10,000  people  in  the  polls  and  that 
10,000  warrants  were  out.  The  law  makes  the  smallest 
threat  a  crime.  A  threat  to  deter  people  from  going  to 
the  polls.  Every  man  has  a  right  to  come  to  the  polls. 
He  may  be  challenged.  If  he  is  challenged  what  saith 
the  law?  An  oath  is  put  before  him  and  read  to  him.  If 
he  takes  that  oath  no  power  on  this  earth  can  stop  him 
from  voting.  That  is  what  that  oath  is  for;  in  the  lan- 
guage that  we  ordinarily  use,  he  swears  his  vote  in.  No 
policeman,  no  election  officer,  no  one  from  the  President 
of  the  United  States  down  to  the  humblest  policeman  can 

311 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

interfere  with  that  man  if  he  will  take  that  oath.  Well, 
you  say  in  that  way  some  people  will  vote  fraudulently. 
Yes,  a  few  will.  But  in  the  other  way  it  will  grow  until 
thousands  are  thrown  out  of  the  polls  and  not  allowed  to 
vote.  So  the  laws  says  of  two  evils  we  will  take  the  lesser 
evil.  It  is  so  hard  to  get  that  into  the  heads  of  people  from 
Russia  like  Dr.  Ratner.  And  I  am  sorry  to  say  it  is  hard 
to  get  it  into  the  heads  of  some  Americans  too.  They 
want  everything  done  by  the  policeman.  And  yet  in  past 
years  when  there  were  frauds  and  repeaters  at  the  polls 
in  this  city  it  was  substantially  all  done  through  the  Police 
Force.  The  repeaters  went  around  in  squads  and  when 
they  felt  the  friendly  hand  of  the  policeman  on  their 
shoulders  to  move  up  and  vote,  they  felt  very  courageous, 
and  the  police  were  very  often  given  a  list  of  these  people 
and  they  waited  for  them  to  come  along  and  encouraged 
them  to  go  up  and  vote.  But  this  has  all  gone.  Nowhere 
in  this  country  is  there  less  illegal  voting  than  right  here 
in  the  city  of  New  York  and  right  here  on  the  East  Side 
of  the  city  of  New  York.  Why,  I  told  the  Commissioner 
to  get  me  a  list  of  the  arrests  made  on  Election  Day. 
Most  of  them  were  made  on  warrants  granted  before 
Election.  I  am  going  to  get,  I  cannot  give  it  to  you  to- 
night, the  number  of  people  that  were  held  for  any  criminal 
offense  on  Election  Day.  I  doubt  if  it  is  five  in  the  whole 
city,  and  yet  we  hear  this  talk  year  after  year. 

And  then  there  is  a  notion  abroad  that  you  people  need 
policemen  to  keep  you  in  order.  When  we  have  a  political 
meeting  people  think  they  must  have  an  army  of  police 
there.  Now  I  did  something  this  year  that  will  make  you 
laugh  because  nobody  knew  about  it.  It  was  given  out 
in  the  paper  that  a  Bull  Moose  meeting  up  at  Madison 
Square  Garden  was  to  be  policed  by  1,000  policemen. 
Didn't  you  read  that?  Hearst  put  it  in  his  paper,  so  it 
must  be  true.  I  had  already  two  years  ago  instructed  the 
Police  Commissioner  to  stop  sending  policemen  to  political 
meetings  except  to  large  meetings  that  might  need  protec- 
tion on  the  outside.  It  used  to  be  the  fashion  to  have  them 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

inside  at  meetings  like  this  and  at  weddings  and  funerals. 
Now  I  asked  Waldo  how  many  he  was  going  to  have  at 
the  Bull  Moose  meeting.  "  Well,"  he  said,  "  I  guess 
about  100."  I  said,  "  Waldo,  cut  it  down  to  50."  And 
there  were  just  50  policemen  at  that  meeting.  They  were 
all  on  the  outside  and  we  didn't  allow  one  to  go  in  the  in- 
side at  all,  but  I  suppose  all  the  Bull  Moosers  think  there 
were  1,000  policemen  there.  And  I  am  going  to  tell  you 
more,  that  the  50  that  were  there  were  not  needed  at  all. 
Respectable  American  citizens  can  meet  without  1,000 
policemen  to  keep  them  from  cutting  their  throats.  Why, 
up  in  the  country  where  they  have  great  political  meetings 
in  this  state  and  all  over  they  have  no  policemen  and  no 
constables  there  at  all.  Those  people  well  understand  they 
can  take  care  of  themselves.  There  is  never  anything  done 
that  is  disorderly.  You  would  think  here  that  if  we  came 
to  a  meeting  without  the  police  we  would  all  fall  to  arid 
kill  one  another.  We  don't  go  to  meetings  for  that  pur- 
pose. We  go  to  hear  the  orators  and  what  they  have  to 
say,  and  then  we  go  home  peaceably.  And  then  the  Wil- 
son meeting  was  coming  on,  so  I  said  to  Waldo,  "  I  have 
a  notion  to  have  no  policemen  go  there."  He  said,  "  Well 
the  others  had  50,  and  maybe  this  year  we  ought  to  give 
them  50."  So  I  said:  "  All  right,  let  the  50  go."  But  the 
next  time  we  will  keep  quiet  and  send  nobody  at  all  and 
see  what  happens.  Now  I  have  let  the  cat  out  of  the  bag 
so  that  if  you  have  a  big  meeting  here  next  year  maybe 
there  will  be  no  policemen  at  all,  and  those  people  that 
read  what  I  am  saying  tonight  will  certainly,  like  Dr.  Rat- 
ner,  be  writing  me  letters  to  send  police  to  keep  the  people 
from  killing  one  another.  The  general  order  and  decency 
of  the  American  people  is  not  excelled  anywhere  in  the 
world.  The  British  people  would  not  allow  policemen  to 
go  to  their  political  meetings  or  interfere  with  them. 
Neither  will  they  in  any  other  part  of  Europe,  except 
where  despotism  prevails,  and  I  think  we  can  do  quite  as 
well  in  the  city  of  New  York. 

The  office  of  our  police  force  is  first  of  all  to  preserve 

313 


outward  order  and  decency,  to  keep  the  streets  in  good  or- 
der, to  prevent  tumult  and  riot  and  disorder  of  all  kinds, 
and  keep  the  streets  open  to  travel,  to  arrest  felons  whom 
they  see  on  the  streets,  arrest  whoever  commits  any  serious 
criminal  offense.  That  being  done,  then  we  have  a  secret 
service  force  to  deal  as  best  we  can  with  gamblers  and  un- 
fortunate women,  the  cut-throats  and  people  who  do 
things  in  secret  or  behind  closed  doors.  Those  we  have  to 
take  care  of  the  best  we  can.  Criminals  will  always  be 
with  us. 

Some  people  think  that  the  Mayor  ought  to  stop  every- 
thing in  48  hours.  He  ought  to  be  able  not  to  have  a  single 
unfortunate  woman  in  the  streets,  a  single  gambler,  a 
single  criminal.  I  have  to  ask  some  of  these  good  people 
sometimes  what  they  have  done  to  rescue  a  single  woman 
from  the  life  that  she  is  leading.  There  are  societies  here 
in  this  city  which  are  working  constantly  in  these  works. 
I  could  almost  kneel  down  to  the  men  and  women  who 
work  in  them  and  devote  their  lives  to  it.  Do  they  ever 
get  up  and  denounce  the  city  officials?  Why,  they  come 
in  to  see  us.  They  work  with  us.  They  are  people  of  all 
denominations.  They  rescue  boys,  they  rescue  girls,  they 
rescue  unfortunate  women.  They  try  to  make  people  bet- 
ter, and  in  that  way,  and  in  that  way  alone,  my  friends, 
the  world  grows  better.  The  world  does  not  grow  better 
by  force  or  by  the  policeman's  club.  He  can  only  keep 
order,  while  the  preachers  preach  and  others  work  to 
morally  uplift  people  so  that  they  won't  commit  crime  or 
vice.  That  is  his  office.  Some  would  have  it  all  done  as 
you  would  eat  a  cookie,  in  half  an  hour,  right  off.  Why,  if 
we  do  it  all,  I  tell  them,  now,  we  won't  leave  anything 
for  our  successors  to  do  and  they  will  feel  lonesome.  We 
can  only  do  our  part,  and  if  we  do  that  we  do  enough. 
The  world  is  better  today  than  it  ever  was  before.  It 
grows  better  all  the  time.  It  can  only  grow  better  grad- 
ually. All  growth  in  this  world  that  is  good  is  gradual 
growth.  You  know  how  gradually  the  tree  grows,  how 
gradually  the  crops  in  the  field  grow  and  mature.  How 

314 


MAYOR    GAYNOR'S    LETTERS    AND    SPEECHES 

gradually  this  body  of  ours  grows  from  the  mother's  womb 
up,  and  how  long  this  world  was  growing  and  was  brooded 
over  by  Almighty  God  before  it  was  fit  for  us  to  live  in. 
And  so  it  is  in  intellectual  things  and  in  spiritual  things 
and  in  moral  things.  They  can  only  grow  by  degrees,  lit- 
tle by  little.  We  have  to  be  patient  and  make  people  bet- 
ter little  by  little,  from  generation  to  generation.  Those 
great  preachers  who  think  I  am  such  a  bad  man,  if  they 
would  only  do  their  share  in  that  respect  they  would  do 
all  that  Almighty  God  expects  of  them  and  all  that  He 
knows  they  can  do.  That  is  the  mission  that  you  and  I 
have  and  that  is  their  mission,  and  let  us  carry  it  out  as 
best  we  can.  Let  us  work  and  teach  in  the  only  way  that 
we  can  to  lift  up  and  improve,  namely,  patiently,  day  by 
day,  little  by  little,  yea,  even  as  Isaiah  says,  "  line  upon 
line,  line  upon  line,  precept  upon  precept,  precept  upon 
precept,  here  a  little,  and  there  a  little." 


315 


Index 


Accident    Insurance;    257-260. 

Accidents:    Arrests    for;    without    warrant; 

22. 

Adams;   John   Quincy:    180,    187. 
Aldermen:   Board   of:   Letter  to:    130. 

Message  to:   36. 
American     Bankers'     Association;     Speech 

before:   264. 
American    Peace    and   Arbitration    League; 

221. 

Appraisal;    Commissioners    of:    17. 
Arrest;    False   report   on   a   boy's:    68. 
Arresting:    boys;    68,    82,    98,    198. 

children;   1S8,   181. 
Arrests;    Citizen's    right    to    make:    48. 

Diminished  number  of:  158,  182. 

Petty:   98. 

Unnecessary:    51. 

without  warrant;    22,    158. 
Assassination;    Attempt   at:    13. 

Prisoners  write  after:  31. 

Inciting   to:    299. 

Moral:    300. 


Bacon;    Col.   Alexander:   still   Sabbath;    84. 

Bake  Ovens  Case;  238,  250,  296. 

Ball-playing   in   streets;    55,    82. 

Bands;   Neighbourhood:    189. 

Banks    and    bankers;    266,    268. 

Beard?    Are   you   certain    it   is   your:    40. 

Becker;   97,   102,   106,    196. 

Bilious   critics;    138. 

Biliousness  and  piety;   114. 

Bill   boards;    160. 

Bimetalism;    174. 

Biographical  sketch  of  Mayor  Gaynor;  7-14. 

Blackmail;    The    press   and:    300. 

Bondsmen;    Professional:    98. 

Books;    55,   64,    66,    159,    163,    168-177. 

Boys;    Arresting:    68,    98. 

Letter   to:    55. 

playing   in    streets;    54,    55,    82. 
Boyville;    Mayor   of:    Letter   to:    137. 
Bribery;     106. 
Burns;    Robert:    Birthplace    of:    111. 


Cabbages;    64,    81. 

Carnegie  Trust  Company;   186. 

Carrots;    81. 

Cato   as    farmer;    63,    266. 

Cats;    80. 

Censorship;    130,    132. 

Cervantes;    65. 

Charities;    Department    of:    81. 

Charity   and   Justice;    271. 

Chickens;   Teaching:   to   roost  higher;    83. 

Children;    Arresting:    158,    181. 

playing   in   streets;    55,   58,   82,    109. 
Christmas;    190. 

Citizens'   Association  Address;   208. 
City    Beautiful    Association;    160. 
Civil   Service   Commission;    Letter  to:    23. 
Clamor;    105,    145,    152,    184,    195,    301. 
Clay;    225. 

Clearwater;    Hon.    A.   T. :    105. 
Cleveland;     Grover:     Chicago     Convention; 
287. 

and  the  tariff;  225,  226. 
Coffee   drinking;    71. 


Commerce;    Expansion   of:   228. 
Commission   form    of   government;    149. 
Commission;    Police:   of   1905;    194. 
Commissioner   of  Police;   8,    102,    106,    167, 

195. 
Commissioners   of   Appraisal;    17,    164. 

Tax:    18. 

Compensation;    Workmen's:    89. 
Competition    and    hob-nailed    boots;    272. 
Congestion ;    306. 
Constitution:    English :    263. 

of   U.    S.   A.;    125,    126. 
Constitutional       Convention;       Periodical: 

242    262 

Constitutions;    Amending:    239,    261,    262, 
263. 

need    to    be    changed;    242. 

Lincoln   on:   262. 

Cornaro;   "Art  of  Living  Long";  50. 
Corruption  in  Police  Department;   78,    192, 

292. 

Councils;   City:   Size  of:   150. 
Court  decisions;   "Obstructive":  236,  243- 

264. 

Court    House;    _Brooklyn:    18. 
Courts    on    Social    and    Economic    Justice; 

243-264. 

Cowl;    Clarkson:    Police;    165. 
Creelman;   James:    Letters  to:   32,   33. 
Criminals:  Making:  by  arresting;  181. 
Criticism;   138,   182. 

of  judicial   decisions;    254. 
Cropsey;    Commissioner:    77,    292. 
Cruelty   to   horses;    51. 


"  Damaged   Goods  " ;   148. 
Davis;   Gherardi:    Letter   to:    177. 
Death;    In   presence    of:    26. 
Democracy   and    Despotism;    87. 
Detective    force;    101. 
Detectives;    Little   men    for:    23. 

and    stolen    property;    73,    75. 
Dingley  Tariff  Act;   226. 
Disease;    Prevention    of:    46. 
Distribution;   Just:   244. 

Prosperity  and:   270. 

"Distributive    Justice";    36,    243,    264-272. 
Dix;    John   A.:    Letter   to:    34. 
"Don    Quixote";    20,    56,    64,    177. 
Doty;  Dr.  Alvah  H.:  Letter  to:  46. 
Dred   Scott   Decision;    128,    129. 
Drinking   on   Sunday;    154. 
Drivers:      Street      Cleaning      Department: 
"  might    freeze  ";     16. 

Eagen;   William:   68. 

East    Side    Club    Address;    304. 

Edwards;    W.    H.:    Letter    to:    16. 

Eggs;   How  to  boil:    134. 

Election   Day   on    East   Side;    310. 

Elections:     Fraudulent:    in     Brooklyn;     10. 

Free:    107. 
Emancipation        Proclamation        "  extorted 

from    Abraham    Lincoln  ";    123. 
Employers'    Liability    Act;    153,    238,    257, 

259,    261,    294,    297. 
Epictetus;    43,    159,    265. 
"Eternal  Priestess  of  Humanity";  96. 
Excise;    Police  and:   76. 


317 


INDEX 


Farmer;    Cato    as    a:    63. 
Farmers;   Address   to:    272,    276. 

Tews    advised    to    become:    62. 

Prices  obtained  by:  276. 
Farming;  Lessons  of:  272. 
Flag;  The  Red:  36. 


Flatbush;    Election    at:    8. 

"Foundations  of  Belief";   171. 

"  Foundations  of  the  Nineteenth  Cen- 
tury ";  38,  266. 

Fourth  of  July;  Safe  and  Sane:  188. 

Franklin;  Benjamin:  37,  125,  128,  172, 
215,  283. 

Frederick  the   Great;    171. 

Free    speech    and    free   press;    130. 

Free    trade;    226. 

Freedom  of  speech  and  of  assembly;   36. 

Freight  rates;    240,   277,   278. 

Fremont    campaign;    128. 

French    Revolution;    172,    289. 


Gamblers;  Licensing  of:  117,  120. 
Gambling;   76,   94,   101,   102,   120,   166,    191. 

houses;    293. 

Gaynor,   Mayor,   Biographical   Sketch,   7-14. 
Gaynor;    Miss   Mary   MT. :    Letter   to:    26. 
Gaynor;    Rufus:    26,    112. 
Genius;    To   an   inspired:    159. 
George;  Henry:  74,   178,   179,  216. 
George;    Lloyd:    257. 
God;   Belief  in:   86. 
Gold;   233.   277,   279. 
Good   Friday;   20. 
Goode;    166,    196. 

Goodman;    Elias   B.:    Letter   to:    156. 
Government;   Three  branches   of:    126. 

Commission    form    of:    149. 

Democracy    and    Despotism;    87. 

of    laws;    8,    23.    49,    71. 

registers   the   will    of   the   people;    212. 
Governorship;    Declines:    14,    32,    33,    34. 
Graft;    17,    79,    80,    93,    97,    102,    103,    106, 

154,    166,    184,    192,    195,   291. 
Grand  jurors;   Payment  of:   67. 
Grasshoppers    and    broom    crop;    110. 
Greenberg;    Assemblyman:    76,    80. 


Happiness;   How  to  attain:   38,  90. 

Happy   New   Year;    71. 

Hard  times;    233. 

Hayes;    J.    Noble:    Letter    to:    96. 

Hearst;    W.    R.:   291,   303,   312. 

newspapers;     209,     291,     303. 
Hell;   "Vestibule  of":   118. 
Hertz;    166,    196. 
Hillin;  Edward:  Letter  to:  114. 
Holding    Companies;    230,    241. 
Hold-ups;    New   York's   "  amazing   record  " 

of:   162. 

"  Hollering  "    of    newsboys;    42. 
Horses;    Cruelty  to:   51. 
Hubbell;    Charles    Buckley:    Letter    to:    63. 
Hyde  Case;   184. 


"  Imitation    of   Christ  " ;    175. 
Immigration;   109. 
Import    tax    for    revenue;    224. 
Income  tax;   262. 
Independence   day:   87. 

Declaration  of:    125. 

Independent;  Article   on   Books  and   Read- 
ing;   168-177;    On    Walking;    42. 
Indictments  against  innocent  persons;    184. 
Insurance;    Accident:    259. 

State:  259. 
"Intellectual    Development    of    Europe"; 

159,    174,    283. 
Interest;    268. 
Introduction;    5,    6. 
International    Peace,    221. 


Jacobs;    Matter    of:    249. 

Japan;    222. 

Jefferson;    Thomas:    127,    172,    235. 

Jefferson  Day   Banquet  Address;   235-243. 

Jesus;    72,    152,    190,    281. 

got  ahead  of  his  time;  289. 

Motives    of:    287. 

"What    would    Jesus    Do?"    155. 

Jewish   Theatre;    Opening  of:    274. 
ews;  21,  39,  62,  91,  92. 
Johnson;    Robert    U. :    Letter   to:    139. 
Journalism  of  New  York  City;   31. 
Journalistic  scoundrels;  31. 
Judicial  decisions;  Criticism  of:  254. 

Recall    of:    152. 

Judge;   Mayor   Gaynor  as  a:    11. 
Jurors;    Grand:   67. 

"Justice:    Distributive:"   36,    90,   243,    264- 
272. 


Keech;   Rev.  F.   J.:   Letter  to:    135. 
Kessler's   Second   Avenue   Theatre;    Speech 

at:    274. 
Kirk  Alloway;   111. 


Lands   for  city;    Waste   in   acquiring:    17. 
Laws:   cannot   cure  ills;    291. 

not  enforceable  should  not  be  passed; 

184.' 

A  government  of:  8,  23,  49,   71. 
Leaders;    Political:    212. 
Lecky;    "History    of    European    Morals"; 

104. 

Liberty;    Interference    with:    236,    246. 
Lincoln;   Abraham:   120-130,   138,   141,   182, 

212,    282. 

on  constitutions;    243,   262. 
as   a   lawyer;    285. 

"  only  tried  to  keep  up  with   the  peo- 
ple";   289. 

Liquor   Law;    99,    191. 
Local    Government;    National    politics    and: 

304. 

Lochner    Case;    251. 
Long  life;   How  to  attain:   50. 
Loti;    Pierre:    139. 
Lustgarten;    Mr.:    304. 


McKane;  John  Y.:   10. 
McKinley:    on   reciprocity;    227. 

Tariff  Act;    225. 
McLaughlin;    Rev.    Robert   W.:    Letter   to: 

120. 

Magna    Charta;    236,    246,    250.    296. 
Marcus   Aurelius;    80,    105,    170. 
Marriage;    Advice    on:    95. 

fees;    Aldermen    and:    112. 

fees  at  City  Hall;   59. 

and  sex;    Books  on:    163. 
Massachusetts    Bill    of    Rights;    126. 
"  Maternity  ";   148. 
Mayor    Gaynor : 

Biographical    Sketch,    7-14. 

First  letter   as:    15. 

Power  of  the:   193. 
Mayors   and   political   parties;    309. 
Metropolitan    tower    clock;    113. 
Military;    Use    of:    in    strikes;    60. 
Mill;    John    Stuart:    37,    81,    267. 
Miller;    Rev.    O.    R. :    Letter  to:    25. 
Mills;    Edgar:    Letter    to:    137. 
Minors;    Employment    of:    297. 
Morgan   &  Co.;    146,    147,   299. 
Morrill  Tariff  Act:  225. 
Morrison;    Rev.    William:    Letters    to:    20, 

111. 

Motherhood;    Tribute   to:    137. 
Motion    Picture   Theatres;    Prize   fight   pic- 
tures;   25,    114. 

Ordinance   relative   to:    130. 


318 


INDEX 


Motion  Pictures;  Censorship  of:  130. 
Music;    Classical:    161,    189. 
in  playgrounds;  41. 


Nature    Study   in    schools;    188. 
Negroes;    Inferiority    of:    128. 
New   Year;    Happy:    71. 
New    York;    Conditions    in:    304-315. 

Credit    of:    144. 

"decorous  and  orderly";   163. 

Hold-ups  in:    162. 
Newsboys       hollering";   42. 
Newspaper:    dictation;    300. 

falsehoods;    245, 

writers;    Degradation    of:    189. 
Newspapers;    83,    105,    110,    124,    137.    154, 

162,    163,    190,    211,    299,    307. 
Night  Courts  unnecessary;   51. 
Npise  and   Dr.    Parkhurst;    113. 
Northern   Bank;    186. 
Northrop;    W.    B. :    Introduction;    5,    6. 
Nuisances;    Public:    Gambling    houses    and 
houses   of   ill   fame  are:    195,    196, 
293. 


Office;    Good    men    in:    291. 
Officials;    Abuse    of:    208. 
O'Gilby;    W.    S.    R. :    Letter    to:    83. 
"  Old-Fashioned     Woman  " ;     163. 
Oneida;   Address   to   Sons   of:   201. 
Orator;    Requisites   of   an:    172. 
Oratory;    286. 

Outlook;    Article    on    Roosevelt;    23. 
Overcrowding    in    prisons;    61. 
Overtime;     working:     56. 


Paine;    Thomas:    126,    157. 

Parkhurst;   Rev.  C.  H.:  113,   114,   117,  213. 

Letter   to:    151. 
Parks:    177. 

Classical   music   in   the:    188. 
Parsons;    Mrs.:    "The   Family";    163. 

"The    Old-Fashioned    Woman";     163. 

"Primitive    Fancies    about    the    Sex"; 

163. 

Paternoster    Case;    176. 
Patrolman's   kind   act;    20. 
Pawnshops;    73,    75. 
Payne  Act;  226. 
Peace;    International:    221. 
Penn;    William:    150. 
Pension    Fund;    Street    Cleaners':    90. 
Pension    Laws    and    Workmen's    Compensa- 
tion;   89. 

Personal   Tax;    Reminiscences,    17,   201-208. 
Philosophy    in    barnyard:    44. 
Pictures;    Prize    fight:    25,    114. 
Piety  and  biliousness;    114. 
Pincus;   Joseph   W. :   Letter   to:   62. 
Playgrounds;    Music   in:   41. 

on   roof;    56. 
Police;    165. 

arresting    boys;    68,    82,    98. 

Commendation    of:     154. 

Commission  of   1905;    194. 

Commissioner;    8,    102,    106,    167,    195. 

corruption;    78,    165,    195. 

First    duty    of    the:    313. 

East    Side:    306. 

Election    frauds;    310. 

control     over     excise,     gambling,     and 
prostitution;    76. 

force     less     corrupt     than     for     thirty 
years;     195. 

maltreating  citizens;   97. 

Manual;    Preface   to:    157. 

being    reduced    to    order;    308. 

at   the   Polls;    107,    310,    311. 

Power    Law;    253,    255. 

and  prostitution;   76,  94. 


reforms    and     "  Eternal     Priestess     of 
Humanity  ";    96. 

Special :    98. 

Policeman;   Each  citizen  a:  48. 
Policemen;   Big  and  little:  23. 

Special:    52,    53. 

Political   parties;    Mayors   and:    309. 
Politics;    Advice    on    entering:    279-304. 

National:    in    local    affairs;    304,    305. 

National,    State   and    Local:    305. 

State:    165. 

Polls;   Police   at  the:    107,   310,   311. 
Prayer  against  lying;    35,   36. 
Presidency   not   in   mind:    32. 
Politics   Club;    Speech   to   the:   279. 
Press;   Coercion   by  the:   300. 

Corrupt:  298. 

Freedom   of:    130. 
Prices;   232,  276. 

Gold    production    and:    233,    277. 

High:    Tariff    and    Gold    Speech;    223- 
225. 

of     protected     goods     in     other     coun- 
tries;   226. 

and   supply   and   demand;    235. 

Trusts    and:    229,    233. 
Prisoner;    Letter   to:    31. 
Prisons;  Overcrowding  in:  61. 

Vice   in:    61. 

"  Progress  and  Poverty  " ;  75. 
Prosperity  and  just  distribution;   244,  270. 
Prostitutes;    116,    119,    184. 
Prostitution;    76,    94,    103,    104,    105,    117, 

192. 

Protection   of   wages;    225,   226. 
Protective    Tariffs;    225. 
Public  lands;    Waste  in   Condemning:    17. 
Public    nuisances;    293. 
Purcell;    169. 
Purring   people;    164. 


Race   tracks;    101. 

Rag-bag  newspapers;   142,   154. 

Raids;    Police:    101. 

Railroads;    240,    277. 

Ratcatcher;    A    learned:    19. 

Reading;    169. 

Recall;    145,    151,    152,   245. 

Reciprocity;    227. 

Red   flag;    36. 

Reform;   212. 

Reminiscences;    Personal:    201-208. 

Reno  fight  pictures;  25,  29,  114. 

Rent;   214. 

Reporters;   190. 

Restitution;   57. 

Revolution;   War  of  the:   123. 

Rhetoricians;   91,  92,  95,  96,   135. 

Riverside   Drive   stage  coaches;    15. 

Robinson;  Allan:  Letter  to:  on  Police;  76. 

Rogues'    Gallery    injustice;    74,    98. 

Roller-skating    in    streets;    58,    109. 

Roosevelt;   Theodore:    17,    23,   299. 

Rosenthal;    77,    91,    196,   292. 

Russia    and    Japan;    179. 

Ryan;  Tom:  City  sold  out  to:  299. 


Sabbath;  84,  111. 

Saloons;   99. 

Santa  Claus;    114,   191. 

Schiff  &  Co.;   146,  147. 

Schools;    Public:    87,    188. 

Seat    hogs;    162. 

Secret    Service    force;    314. 

Sheahan;  Thomas:  Letter  to:   21. 

Single    tax;    74,    179,    214-221. 

Sipp;    77,    166,    196,    294. 

Slavery;     130,    138. 

Smith;  R.  A.  C. :  Letter  to:  on  Books;  '64. 

Socialism:    36,    37,   239,    258,   271. 


Speech;    Freedom    of:    130. 
Spelling:  "Simplified":  16,   19. 


319 


INDEX 


Spitting;    Man   arrested   for:    83. 

Stick   pins;    106. 

Stolen  property;   Pawnshops  and:   73,   75. 

Street  Cleaners'  Strike;  60. 

Street    Opening    Bureau;    17. 

Streets;    Playing   in:    54,    55,    58,    82,    109. 

Strikes;    60,    93. 

Subways;     34,    61,     142-145,    146-148,    212, 

298,    299,    301,    302. 
Sugar    tariff;    226. 
Sugar   trust;   229. 
Sullivan-Short     Bill;     74. 
Sulzer;    Hon.   William:    Letter  to:    164. 
Summonses;    157. 
Sunday;    84,    85,    154. 
Supply   and   demand;    235. 
Syracuse    Fair;    Speech    at:    272. 


Taney;   Chief   Justice:   on   negroes;    128. 
Tariff:    High    Prices,    and    Gold:    223. 

History    of   the   American:    223. 

High  prices  and  the:   223. 

question   local   and   selfish;    226. 

Public  opinion  and  the:  227. 

for    revenue    only;     225. 

taxation;    Extremes    of:    225. 
Tariffs    are    too    high;    224. 

and   prices   at   home   and   abroad;    226. 

and    profits;    225. 

War:    225. 
Tax:    Commissioners;    18. 

Income:    262. 

Personal:    17. 
Taxes;    Rents   and:    214. 
Tenement   House  Tobacco   Case;    237,   248, 

296. 

Thieves  and  usurers;   266. 
Thompson;    Commissioner:    26,    136. 
Thompson;    Dr.:    50. 
Thoren;    Harvey:     110. 
Tilden   presidential   campaign;    225. 
Titanic;    81. 
Tolstoy;    178,    180. 
Trade;    Expansion    of:    228. 
Trust;    Definition    of   a:    229. 
Trusts;    229,    240. 

and   freight  rates;    278. 

made   legal   in   New   Jersey;    230,   231. 

and    prices;    229,     231. 

How  to  get  rid  of  the:   231,   241. 
Tucker;     180. 
Tweed    frauds;    150,    209. 


Underground   Bake   Ovens   Case;   238,   250, 

296. 

Unitarians;    127. 
Usurers   and    thieves;    266. 
Usury;    266. 

Defence    of:    267. 


Value;    234. 

Vice    Commission;    76. 

Vice;    Definition    of:    306. 

Department;  Veto  of  separate:  191-197. 

in    prisons;    61. 

Scattering:    116. 

Segregating:  118,  156,  183. 
Virtue;    Segregating:     156. 
Voltaire;    171. 
Voting;    Fraudulent:    107. 

Illegal:    312. 


Wages;    Local    rates    of:    257,    260. 
Waldo;    Rhinelander:    Letters    to:    51,    52, 

53,    68,    73,    106,    165. 
Walking;    16,   42.    110. 
War    tariffs;    225. 
Warrant;   Making  arrests  without:  52,   158. 

Breaking    into    houses    without:     100, 

193,    194. 

Washington    and   Lincc'n;    120-130. 
Waste  in  condemning  public  lands;  17. 
Water:   Company  deal  in   Brooklyn;   9. 

Department   and   waste   of  water;    136. 

supply   in   houses;   49. 
Watson;   A.   R. :   Letters  to:   17,   164. 
Watterson,   Mr.:    32. 
Webster;    285. 

Weights  and  measures;   180,  187. 
Weston;   E.   P.:   16,  44,   110. 
Wife;   Finding  a:   58. 
Williams    Case;    255. 
Wilson    Tariff   Act;    226. 
Wilson;    Woodrow:    169. 
"Wink"  letter  to  little   girl;    58. 
Wise;    Rabbi:    91,    92,    95.    96,    102,    114, 

134,   308. 

Witte;   Count:    178. 

Women's  Night  Work  Case;  238,  254,  297. 
Wool;    Free:    225,   226. 
Workmen's  Compensation;   89. 


Yale   Forum;    Address   before:    243-264. 


320 


I  IP  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARV ^ACILITY 

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